Hidden Panther, Stalking Telepath
by Megatron's Blackfire
Summary: A strange panther cub has appeared on Jungle Planet, a Scrapmetal is only steps behind the Decepticons on Speed Planet, and a familar figure keeps appearing near the Decepticons and Starscream feels drawn to it. Sequal to White is Pure But So Is Silence
1. Prologue

Prologue

A lone figure raced through the forest of the Jungle Planet, completely content to be by himself rather than be back at the temple. He preferred the quiet, peacefulness of the forests that he knew like the back of his paw rather than the tense, aggressive atmosphere that surrounded the temple. He didn't enjoy the "fight or die" attitude that his leader continuously enforced on the planet, but there was very little he could do.

"Why must Scourge use his power to abuse others?" He asked out loud as he came to a stop shaking his head. "He wanted to help our people, now they live in fear." He sighed. "And those strangers that he has decided to help, they are bad news, I can smell it on them." He added with a growl.

Two off-worlders had appeared at the entrance to the temple earlier that day. They showed absolutely no regard to their laws what-so-ever and instead intended to start a fight with him and the other temple guardians. The obvious leader of the two had seemed cold and distant, not that his accomplice had been any better, and it was extremely unnerving. He growled to himself as he remembered how calm Scourge had been. He had seen the admiration in his old friend's optics as he regarded the other leader. Something about the name that the leader had called himself and every other mech under his leadership, "Decepticon", it left a bad taste in his mouth. It didn't sound like someone that could be trusted. He didn't like it and he just wanted them to be left alone so that they could try to heal what was left of their planet.

There was a clinking sound above him and he snapped his head up in surprise before he came to a stop. He watched as a circle of fire opened just below the canopy, revealing a dark hole inside. He shivered; was this the black hole that the mech had spoken of? Or was it just a reflection of space? A figure burst out of the circle at that moment, yellow optics flashing as it opened its mouth to reveal fangs. He watched as the figure landed on the ground and he blanched; it was a small panther cub, jet black and still full of the cuteness that came with being a sparkling, even though it was obviously half-way to being an adult. It shook itself off, flicking its tail back and forth, which strangely didn't move as much as other cat-formers he knew, before it noticed him.

It blinked in shock before it arched its back and the metallic fur on its back stood up on end. It started hissing at him and he almost fell over from laughing. It didn't sound dangerous at all, but rather cute.

"That doesn't sound very scary." He commented as he regarded the cub. "And what good would a panther cub have against a full grown wolf?" He added as he took a step forward.

The cub seemed to mull that fact over before it sprang forward spitting. "Meow!" It squeaked before turning and leaping away. It brought its paw up and swatted at the air in front of it, almost as if it was trying to scare him off.

"That's not scary." He replied with a shake of his head. "You just look cute."

The cub glared at him before turning around, sticking its tail in the air, and walking away. He shook his head at the sparkling's antics before he turned away. He started racing back through the woods towards the temple. He couldn't hear the cub following him so he believed that it was off looking for something that would entertain it better than he could. He didn't see the black streak that was following him back to the temple, careful to stay downwind and out of optic range.

He leapt easily up the temple steps, just like any other day after a patrol or simple excursion. As he leapt over the last step and onto the temple platform, he spotted the two strangers walking out of the temple.

"And that's why I'm the leader." The tallest of the pair stated coldly to the other.

The other glared at his leader, pure hatred seething out of his optics. He turned towards him and stopped. Dark purple optics stared out of a pale face surrounded by a dark blue helm. There was a wing on each of his arms, each having a hidden blade folded behind them that became activated when he used his Cyber Planet Key. Along beak of sorts stretched from his stomach to mid-thigh, far longer than any flying mech he had ever seen. He gave him an even look before snorting.

"And where did you go, Snarl?" He asked coldly. "Didn't bother sticking around to hear about things that could easily change your world?"

Snarl snorted before he transformed, placing his wolf head on his arm. "I wasn't needed during your meeting." He replied.

The larger mech snorted, his cold face causing the metal fur on his back to stand up. His white face was made all the more colder by his icy blue optics that seethed with untold evil. A set of purple horns stood out predominately on his forehead. His body was a mixture of black, purple, and yellow metal, spikes sticking up on either side of his knees, and spike like protrusions on his forearms. He was a terrifying figure, far taller than any mech known on the Jungle Planet and easily commanded instant respect, no matter how much a mech distasted him.

"I'm sure your leader could have done well with your opinion." The mech stated coldly, the coldness and cruelty in his voice burning his audio receptors. "After all, you are his right-hand bot."

The smaller mech chuckled before his head snapped to the side. "What was that?" He demanded as he pointed at the pillar beside Snarl.

"What was what, Starscream?" The taller mech sighed in annoyance.

"Something small and black." Starscream replied snappishly. "It just ran behind that pillar."

Snarl glanced at the pillar before growling and transforming back into his wolf alt mode. He raced at the pillar snarling and growling and a loud hiss and meowing met his audios before the panther cub from before darted out from behind the pillar. Snarl stopped for a half-second before transforming and glaring at the hissing panther.

"You are either very stupid coming here, or really brave." He commented.

The panther ceased hissing at him and merely glared at him. It snorted before it started to turn towards the temple entrance but froze as it saw Starscream. Its optics widened before it yelped. It stood there for a moment, visibly shaking before it spun around and tore off at top speed to the edge of the temple platform and leapt off into the forest below.

"Well, that was…different." Snarl commented as he scratched the back of his head.

"What a coward." Starscream sneered.

"This coming from you." The taller mech retorted coldly.

Starscream clenched his fists before turning to his leader. "Permission to return to Earth, sir." He stated.

"Granted." The mech replied.

Starscream transformed into something that Snarl had never seen before, opened a warp gate in the sky, and blasted off into it. The leader snorted as the gate closed before he opened on himself and stepped through it. Snarl watched them leave and snorted.

"Good riddance." He spat. "Something about those two leaves a bad taste in my mouth." He turned towards the edge of the platform and frowned. "I hope that cub is ok; it's a long way down to the ground."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Hey, CZ, is that the boss?" A red motorbike asked its large, green, three-wheeled companion.

"It looks like him, Ransack, but what's he doing out here in the desert?" The green car replied.

"Why don't we go ask him?" Ransack replied as he took off over the dunes.

"Right behind you, little buddy."

The two trouble makers of the Speed Planet raced out across the desert sands towards the figure standing out in the middle of a sea of sand. It looked slightly smaller than their leader, but it could have just been a trick of the light, or lack thereof since it was well past midnight. The barely visible moonlight glinted off the figure's armor making it look mystical and ethereal; it made the armor look white and ghost-like. Ransack and his companion started shouting at the figure and caused it to turn its head towards them. Piercing ice blue optics glared at them from a pure white face.

"Hey boss, what are you doing?" The large three-wheeler asked.

The figure narrowed its optics before turning around and jumping up. It easily folded into its jet alt mode and blasted away from them. It opened a warp gate and disappeared through it.

"Well, that was rude." Ransack commented as he transformed. He grabbed the protrusion on his head that was similar to a baseball cap and frowned. "He could have at least said something."

"Who could have said something?" A dark voice questioned as the sound of a warp gate closing reached them.

Ransack yelped and spun around before frowning at the giant mech standing in front of them. "You, sir." He replied.

The mech's optics narrowed. "Excuse me?" He asked.

"You were just standing over there," Ransack replied as he pointed to the spot where the figure had been standing, "then when we tried asking you what you were doing out here, you took off and vanished through a warp gate."

The mech lifted his head up in an intimidating manner and gave the small, red mech a pointed glare, causing him to back up. "I was just on the Jungle Planet, Ransack." He growled. "I only just arrived on your planet so it was impossible for the figure you saw to be me."

"But it looked just like you Megatron sir!" The green vehicle yelped as he transformed. "Maybe slightly thinner, but identical!"

"Are you trying to say that I'm fat, Crumplezone?" Megatron asked coldly before he turned his penetrating gaze on the larger green mech.

"NO!" Crumplezone squeaked. "That's not what I meant at all!"

"Explain." Megatron growled as electricity crackled along his hand.

"I-I-I meant that it looked, um…actually, it looked kinda…femmy." Crumplezone replied as he scratched his head.

"Now that I think about it, it had a really defined waist. And the face was smaller and slimmer."

Megatron's optics widened for a moment before he snorted. "Are you suggesting that I am femme-like?" He growled.

"No sir!" Crumplezone squeaked.

"We were saying that the other guy was femme-like!" Ransack added hurriedly.

"You said that it looked identical to me." Megatron growled. "In order for that to be right, I would need to look like a femme."

"No! Oh no sir, you are very masculine!" Ransack stated, hoping to please Megatron and not get his aft fried.

Megatron snorted. "Get out of my sight." He growled before he sent several bolts of electricity at the two cowering mechs. "Now."

Ransack and Crumplezone yelped before they transformed and took off across the desert. Megatron snorted before he turned his head towards the sky and watched the stars twinkle above him. So much had happened in the five months since he had left his daughter behind to look after Blacksprite by herself. He regretted it sometimes, missing her far worse than he would ever let on, but he knew that she could handle herself back on Cybertron. He hoped that she hadn't decided to disobey his strict orders to remain hidden and on Cybertron.

"Don't you get involved in this hunt." Megatron stated to thin air. "It has nothing to do with you and hopefully it will be over before you even realize it. Stay away from this war, Whitesilence." He finished before he opened a warp gate and walked into his fire dimension.

A red Scrapmetal with a purple gem attached to its front leg and a yellow bandana tied around its neck dug its way out of the sand. It tilted its head to the side, pondering what Megatron had said. It chirped before it buried itself back into the sand and started digging in the direction that Crumplezone and Ransack had taken; it had a job to do for its master and it was sure as the Pit going to accomplish it.


	2. Familiar Figure

Ok, since I couldn't fit it into the summary, I'll say it now. This story is the sequel to White Is Pure But So Silence. So before you go and ask me a bunch of blindingly obvious questions about it, please read the first story. It should help to clear some things up without me ruining the story for you. Thank you again for your patience.

Chapter 1 Familiar Figure

Starscream balled his fists angrily as he listened to Thundercracker drone on and on about something. He had blocked him out ages ago when he had started telling Mudflap all about the femme s they had back at their base on Cybertron. He hated listening to him, always had and always would. He hated his accent, but he was sure that they would have gotten along better if he hadn't acted like such a crank shaft back when they were sparklings. He had been an insecure sparkling from the start while Thundercracker had been loud; he had learnt responsibility at a very young age because he had to look after both himself and baby Jetfire while Thundercracker still didn't understand anything; he practiced every day to get better and earn his place in the Decepticon hierarchy while Thundercracker just tried to blow everything in sight up. They were almost total opposites and seemed destined to rub each other the wrong way. But now, one name had brought him back to the present with a sickening jolt; Whitesilence.

"Yeah, she was total babe," Thundercracker was telling the newest recruit. "But, she couldn't tell a good thing when she saw one."

"What do you mean?" Mudflap asked in his weird accent, which was similar to an Earth French accent, which luckily wasn't as annoying as Thundercracker's.

"She wouldn't date any one of the other mechs that were hot, like myself, she settled for someone who was one of the biggest freaks in the whole base." Thundercracker replied, shooting Starscream a smirk.

"Well, who was that?" Mudflap asked.

"Starscream." Thundercracker replied with a laugh. "Honestly, he was such a nerd!"

"I hope you are aware that I can hear every word that you are saying, Thundercracker." Starscream growled as he walked over to the smaller blue Seeker.

Mudflap tilted his head at him. "So this Whitesilence, she is beautiful, no?" He asked.

Starscream growled slightly before he grinned. "Yes, she is." He replied before he turned away from the two mechs. "And she is waiting for us to return to Cybertron triumphant." He added before he opened a warp gate.

"Thundercracker said that she was one of Megatron's top Generals. Why did he not bring her along?" Mudflap asked.

"Because Megatron didn't want her to get hurt." Starscream replied. "And she had to look after the sparkling that she adopted." He added.

"Ah, I see. So, this Whitesilence is very close to Megatron, no?"

Starscream shot him a glance. "Yes." He replied. 'Unfortunately.' He added to himself.

"So she is waiting on Cybertron for the Decepticons to return home victorious?" Mudflap asked to clarify everything.

"Yes." Starscream replied, slowly growing annoyed with the conversation. He didn't mind talking about his femme, but he'd prefer it if Thundercracker wasn't in the room to make rude comments. He didn't like her image to be ruined by some idiot who wanted to treat her as an interface toy and not an equal.

"Hey, maybe by the time we get back she'll have come to her senses and realized that Starscream isn't as great as she thought." Thundercracker laughed. "Then I can have a go with her. A babe like that would probably give a really nice interface session."

Thundercracker's laugh was cut short as Starscream whipped around and pinned him against a rock wall. He snarled, holding Thundercracker up by his throat while his side guns were focused solely on his midsection. Mudflap let out a squawk of surprise behind him, shouting that he was sure Thundercracker had been joking, but he ignored him. Thundercracker was staring at him in shock, his yellow optics full of fear. He smirked; he wanted Thundercracker to fear him, after all, with fear comes respect. He would teach him one day that by insulting his lover, he would retaliate in her place.

"If I ever hear you talk about Whitesilence in such a manner again, not even Megatron will be able to stop me from tearing you apart!" He snarled before he released Thundercracker and let him fall to the ground in a heap. "I'm going to Earth; following me would not be a good idea." He added before he turned and walked through his still opened warp gate.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Starscream flew easily through the night air. Earth; many Autobots claimed that it was a beautiful place, perhaps one of the most beautiful in the Universe, but he failed to see it. There was too much organic matter that could get caught within his internal workings and cause a lot of damage and annoyance. He just wanted to get those Cyberplanet Keys, destroy the Universe, and make a new home to live where there wasn't so many blasted organics running around.

They were worthless anyways; they couldn't fight to protect themselves and were creating more damage than assistance to everything around them. The minute they are created, they begin to die; what was the point of that? Not to mention their understanding of the Universe was so pathetic it was sickening. They didn't even begin to understand what was happening within them every moment of the day and their bodies couldn't process energy very efficiently; they used about 10 percent of the nourishment that they consume to actually perform their bodily functions while the rest was given off as heat, not to mention what they do to expel of the waste product. They were so pitiful, they made Megatron look like a loveable fool.

He grinned to himself as he mused. Megatron would fall before his might, once and for all, and then he would take leadership of the Decepticons. He would be a far better leader than that heap of scrap, but, what ultimate Emperor of the Decepticons would he be if he didn't have an Empress? Someone to rule at his side, someone who was loyal to him undyingly, someone who would never think ill of his plans and claim that he was an idiot. Whitesilence filled that place nicely. So very nicely. He could see her sitting beside him on thrones made from their enemy's bodies, her beauty only marred by the coldness that would eventually settle in her optics and let everyone know that she was indeed evil and cruel to all that oppose her. Yes, his Whitesilence would make a perfect Empress for him. She might mourn her father's death, but, she would side with him. He knew it with his spark; she was more loyal to him than to her father, even if it was only by a very small percentage. She would mourn and shed tears that Megatron did not deserve, but she would ultimately stay at his side like the loving mate that she was, or rather would be.

It stung, slightly, that she had to look that much like her father. Horns, spikes, optics, all the same shape as Megatron, except for colour and size. He grinned to himself; he wouldn't change her for the world though; the look suited her. How many times had he seen an enemy freeze when they looked at her, unsure if it was Megatron crouching, ready to spring forward and kill them or a trick of the light. That momentary pause in their attack was all she would need before their life force was snuffed out. Like any other Decepticon femme, she knew how to kill, how to fight, and how to win. And her newest way to kill them by ripping out their voice transmitter like some feral beast was enough of a horror story to leave any mech trembling in their metal boots; it scared him slightly because how many times had those same fangs been against his throat? And yet, she never once made any attempt to hurt him, ever. Frag, he missed her.

He sensed something moving on the mountain side below him and flew in closer. He saw a flicker of movement as something snapped behind a large boulder and attempted to hide from him. What a wasted effort.

"Hiding won't do you any good." Starscream called. "I'll just track you." He was sure it was something intelligent that had hidden itself because only they would have enough sense to hide. "Come out, come out." He sneered as he landed on the other side of the boulder.

He stood there for what felt like eternity, waiting to see what would happen. The thing that was hiding wasn't moving; he could still sense its presence, a slow, steady pulsing just on the other side of the rock. Finally, he slowly began to creep around the side of the boulder, grinning sadistically at the thought of a likely kill. He waited for a moment when he heard the sound of dirt crunching under metallic feet and grinned again; Autobot. With a snarl he lunged around the side of the boulder, ready to gut the enemy, but was stopped short.

Whoever it was, had grabbed him and slammed him into the side of the mountain. Dazed and winded, he saw a flash of silver and white move just in front of him. He shook his head and tried to get his feet gathered underneath him to counterattack until a hand touched his chest plate as he stood up somewhat. Small, delicate fingers ran along his chest for a moment, before the hand ran up the side of his neck to caress his cheek. He blinked in surprise, not sure how to react to the calming, sensitive gesture. He still couldn't see straight so the owner of the hand was a mess of bright colours in front of him and everything got all the more confusing when a set of lips were placed against his. He yelped in shock and tried to shove the stranger off away from him as the kiss began to get deeper.

He wanted to respond because something felt familiar about the lips, but it was probably just his overactive mind making the connection between these lips and his femme's. He let out a low warning growl, telling the other to get away from him. The figure in front of him pulled away but another kiss was applied to his chest before he was released from their touch. He raised a hand up to his optics, realizing that there was dust covering his optics and therefore making it impossible to see the figure that was now backing away. He swore he heard the softest of sighs before the sound of someone transforming reached him. He glanced up just in time to feel the heat of their afterburners as they flew away from him.

He finally managed to get the last of the dirt off of his optics and looked up into the sky. The stars were twinkling gently above him, clouds passing over the moon and sending everything into complete darkness, but there wasn't any trance of his strange attacker. He shook his head as he opened a warp gate; he'd deal with this later, he obviously needed to go get some recharge; a femme, if his sensors had been correct, had just handed him his aft then had attempted to make out with him. He walked through the warp gate shaking his head at the bizarre encounter and missed the sounds of a jet hovering just above him.

The jet transformed and stood where Starscream had been pinned to the wall moments before. The figure grinned before placing a hand against the wall and smoothing it along where the Seeker's back had been.

"_All that time away and he's still a great kisser."_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Snarl shook his head as he watched Scourge fight with Megatron. The Decepticon leader was strong, he'd give him that. But his battle style made him uneasy; there was no defense, just move in and kill. Each time the two leaders fought, Megatron emerged victorious without so much as a scratch while Scourge would have to have extensive repairs. Nothing seemed to be strong enough to beat the giant mech, not even Scourge's fire-breath. That attack was easily diverted and soon after Scourge always received a shot from the tyrant's electrical pulses.

Megatron easily flipped Scourge onto his back before pressing his foot against the dragon's throat. "Had enough for now?" He asked with a smirk.

"For now." Scourge sighed. "You are a powerful fighter, Megatron. Anyone under your leadership must be in awe of it."

Megatron removed his foot and Scourge stood up, rolling his arm around in its socket. "I wouldn't quite say that." Megatron replied. "There are several underlings that believe that they could replace me."

"Ahh, that is always a problem." Scourge chuckled before he glanced at him. "Forgive me for saying this, but it is quite obvious to someone who relies on their senses every day. There is a female scent hanging off of you."

A ghost of a smile appeared on Megatron's face, momentarily startling Snarl; he hadn't even been aware that the mech could smile. It wasn't much, just the corners of his mouth turned up ever-so-slightly, but it was enough to change the dimensions of his face and make it look only remotely softer.

"I suppose you think I have a mate?" He questioned.

"Of course." Scourge replied. "What femme would not want a powerful mate to protect them?"

Megatron chuckled. "If the female that you smell on me were interested in me that way I would most likely be deeply disgusted."

"And why is that?" Snarl asked. "Do you not believe that this femme is capable of being a mate?"

Megatron turned to look at him, a smirk now dominating his face. "Oh, she is more than capable of getting a mate, but I would never take her for a mate. I would take a Scrapmetal for a mate before I ever took her."

Snarl narrowed his optics. "And why is that?" He growled.

"Because, Snarl, she is my descendent. More specifically, my daughter." Megatron replied.

Snarl's optics widened in shock. "Oh! Well, that is a good reason for not wanting her for a mate." He admitted as he rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.

Scourge chuckled. "Well then, you must have had a mate at one point."

Megatron shook his head. "No. Her mother was from the enemy faction. It was a forced bond to teach her a lesson. She somehow managed to escape and returned to her own and I was unaware of the sparkling that she was carrying until one of my mech reported her being with spark." He replied. "She 

was captured again, brought back to me, beaten and then killed once my daughter was protoformed." He chuckled when he caught sight of Snarl's horrified expression. "Do not waste your pity on that femme; she was a disgusting little glitch that everyone is better off without."

Scourge shuddered only slightly. "I will take your word on that." He replied. "But I would like to meet this daughter of yours. Is she as deadly a fighter as you are?"

Megatron chuckled coldly. "Oh, trust me Scourge, she is almost as lethal. Her favourite attack as of late is to tear out the throat of her victims and watch them bleed to death. It is…unnerving to watch at some points as she acts more like a beast during those moments than robot, but her enemies fear her. I believe she developed the technique from watching her pet Scrapmetal kill its prey."

Scourge chuckled. "Ah, a femme after my own spark." He commented. "Would she happen to be looking for a mate at the moment?" He laughed.

Megatron chuckled coldly. "No, she isn't." He replied. "She has her optics focused solely on my Second in Command and she isn't interested in any other mech."

Snarl grinned; Megatron did not get along at all with his Second in Command. How Starscream had managed to reach that level in the army was a mystery. But, if what Megatron had just said was true, his own daughter might have had a servo to play in the equation. Perhaps she convinced Megatron to allow Starscream to be such a high ranking officer just so he would look better when it came to selecting her mate. Megatron and Scourge were discussing the Cyberplanet key again so Snarl took that as his sign to leave. As he turned around, he spotted a flash of black armor around one of the pillars and shook his head. He walked by it and hissed softly.

"You might want to be more careful, little one." He stated, knowing that the panther cub was spying on them again. "If Scourge catches you hanging around the temple without a just cause, he will not hesitate to confront you and kill you." He warned.

He heard a soft hiss as a reply and nodded. The sparkling seemed to turn up every few days since it had arrived about a month ago just to watch Scourge fight and train. It must have had some sort of fascination with the dragon mech or it was just stupid. Snarl personally hoped it was the former, just so that it wouldn't get hurt. As he transformed to head out on patrol, and to give Backstop his report, he saw the panther cub slink off to another pillar closer to where Scourge and Megatron where. He sighed softly before turning and racing down the temple steps.

"Primus protect you."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ransack ran screaming as the angry red Scrapmetal chased him across the desert sand. He had accidentally shot it in the aft and now it was out to kick his. How it had survived being shot was beyond him, but he knew that it wasn't happy. All the hissing and screaming it was doing gave that away.

He didn't want to die! He still had so much life left to live, so many babes to still scope out, a race to win and Autobot aft to kick, not to mention he had to get back at Hot Shot for shooting him when he was bullying that old bot Breakdown. He didn't want to die because he got a glitching Scrapmetal mad.

He glanced back and frowned. The Scrapmetal didn't look the same as others that he had seen in his lifetime. There was a purple gem of some sort wrapped around its front left leg, which was glowing brightly in the burning sunlight, and there was a yellow cloth wrapped around its neck to form a bandana. Why it had them on, he didn't know, but he had a feeling that he didn't want to find out why. It looked infuriated and that scared him even more. Scrapmetals were not supposed to show emotions; no one had ever talked about Scrapmetals looking angry so why was this one looking that way?

Why had he come out here all on his own? At least if Crumplezone had been here, he might have helped blow the stupid drone sky high by now. But no, he had to come train all by himself and consequently shoot the red Scrapmetal while it was sunbathing on a rock. It had screeched so loudly that there hadn't been any time to try to shoot it again, he had just run. And now he was getting chased across the sand dunes and most likely looking like an idiot as the giant pest that was easily taller than him tried to run him into the ground.

He saw a flash of spikes and horns out of the corner of his optics and almost laughed in relief. "Hey, boss, make it stop!" He shouted as he raced past the figure.

There was a low growl from the Scrapmetal as he dove behind a large sand dune. He was waiting for the explosion that would signal that the drone was dead so that he could go back and thank Megatron for saving him, but it never came. With confused thoughts racing through his mind, he poked his head out from behind the sand dune. The wind had kicked up, throwing the tiny rock particles everywhere and almost blinding the red mech. He squinted and tilted his head in confusion.

Megatron was crouching in front of the Scrapmetal and stroking its head. It was growling slightly but seemed to have calmed down considerably; it wasn't chasing him anymore. He wanted to shout out to Megatron his thanks, but something told him to keep his mouth shut. He watched as Megatron gave its cockpit-like head a final pat before nudging it gently with his hand. The Scrapmetal let out a noise that was a mix of a growl and a purr before it turned and burrowed its way underground. There was a ripple in the sand as it moved away from him and back to wherever it had come from. Ransack let out a sigh of relief and scrambled back over the top of the sand dune. He watched as Megatron opened a warp gate while shaking his head. He could feel a strange presence in his mind, almost like it was flicker just beyond his field of senses and he could sense a feeling of disbelief and slight disgust. As Megatron walked through the warp gate, the feeling vanished with him.

Ransack blinked in confusion before he transformed and headed back to his and Crumplezone's hangout. Did he ever have a story to tell him today.

**Author's note:** And chapter two everyone. I think it is blindly obvious who each of the figures that keep turning up are. The others are completely oblivious to who they are, mostly because they don't know who they are or they don't get a good look at them. Well, please leave a review for me before you leave and I hope you are looking forward to the story.


	3. Spotting

Chapter 2 Spotting

Chapter 2 Spotting

Scourge sighed in annoyance as he picked up the scent for the fourth time in the past week; that panther cub was back at the temple. It obviously thought it was being clever by staying downwind at all times and hiding behind the pillars, but it must have forgotten about its scent staying on the pillars. The scent alone was almost overwhelming the temple since it was new and everyone immediately noticed it. It had been spotted once or twice by Undermine and Brimstone, but the moment they went to go capture it, it vanished without a trace. He was slowly losing his patience and tolerance for the intruder; it was time he put the cub in its place.

"You are foolish," he growled as he turned around to face the steps leading up to the temple, "if you believe that I am unaware of your presence, Cub."

He smirked in amusement as the panther cub poked its head out from around a pillar and looked directly into his optics. Its yellow optics were glowing slightly in the slowly fading sunlight, looking innocent and sparkling-like against its black face. It sighed and stepped out into full view, hanging its head slightly before sitting back on its haunches and rubbing a paw on the back of its head. Its tail was sticking out straight behind it; no doubt it was its primary weapon in robot mode. It tilted its head back to look up at him before it sighed again.

"What gave me away?" It asked, startling Scourge; it was a femme, not a mech as he had assumed.

"You left your scent on the pillars." Scourge replied. "It is different from everyone else's and stood out."

"I knew I shouldn't have used that pillar as a backscratcher." The femme muttered before looking back at him. "So…am I in trouble?"

"Yes." Scourge replied coldly, narrowing his optics. "I do not like trespassers."

"Um…sorry?" The cub squeaked. "It's just,' it hung its head, 'I wanted pointers on how to fight. My weapon isn't very good and I'm not incredibly strong. I was hoping that by watching you fight I would get better."

Scourge lifted an optic ridge; the youngling wanted training? That's why it had been hanging around the temple? Well, it might have worked better if it had approached him sooner and asked rather than spying on them while they were training and getting their afts handed to them by Megatron. Training the femme, however, would be interesting as they were often more flighty than a mech. Perhaps he could teach her not to be like that and instead be a tough and dangerous opponent. He smirked before he turned away; that was a desirable outcome.

"I am willing to train you, Cub, but you will be put to the limit right away." He stated. "There will be no easy start for you since you decided to spy on the denizens of this temple."

"Got it." She replied. "I'll do whatever it takes to get stronger!"

Scourge nodded. "Be here by sunrise; your training begins then." He stated. "Do not be late."

"Understood, sir!" She replied before the sound of metal paws against the ground reached him.

He glanced behind him and smirked again as the panther cub took off across the platform and vanished down the steps. He shook his head slightly before he walked into the temple; the others were going to have fun when they learned what they had to do starting tomorrow.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Megatron growled as he watched Ransack and Crumplezone race away; that was the second time that week that they had claimed to see him when he wasn't even on this miserable planet. That made a total of six sightings, so there must have been something going on. He frowned before he shook his head; they must have been seeing things. There was no one in the Universe that looked like him other than his daughter, but she was on Cybertron, not Velocitron and she would have contacted him if she had been forced to leave. He snorted angrily before he turned around and started walking out across the sand; idiots.

He walked for a while, letting his mind mull over all the information that the two idiots had told him. Every time they had apparently seen him, one of them were in dire need of being rescued. And it always seemed to be from the same Scrapmetal. A red one with a purple gem on its leg and a yellow bandanna…could it have possibly been Redscream? It was unlikely seen as how she didn't know how to work the dimension gates and didn't act on her own free will when it came to matters like this. She was a well trained pet and obeyed orders better than most of his mechs, so she wouldn't be here unless either he, Whitesilence, or Starscream had told her to.

He shook his head before he heard the sound of something shifting nearby. He lifted his head up and watched in shock as the sand parted merely three feet ahead of him and something large and red crawled out of the dunes. It gave itself as shake, throwing sand everywhere and hitting Megatron in the face. He spluttered as he backed up, shaking his head as he tried to clear his vision.

"Redscream!" He snarled as he glared at the red Scrapmetal as it shook its legs out.

It froze, right back leg still in the air as it was almost ready to finish shaking itself clean of sand. The leg was slowly lowered before it turned around painfully slow and tilted its cockpit head up to look at him. It immediately hit the ground, pulling itself forward until its head was against his leg. It let out a slow coo as it stood up slowly, rubbing its head against his leg, almost as if it was asking for forgiveness.

"What are you doing here?" He muttered as he squatted down and started stroking the Scrapmetal. It let out a small cry, almost as if it was asking him the same thing. He chuckled as he stood up and looked around, trying to catch the faintest traces of any other Cybertronians. Redscream bunted his leg and chirped as she tried to get his attention. He laughed as he glanced down at the Scrapmetal. "Are you hiding something?" He asked.

Redscream shook her head quickly, chirping and growling her answer. He smiled before shaking his head; Redscream had always had a different personality than the other Scrapmetals. It might have just been because she was tamed, to some extent, while the others were wild, but it never seemed to bother her, not even when she had run-ins with her wild counterparts. It most often ended with them dragging her away from the wild ones as they tried to tear each other apart.

Suddenly, Redscream spun around with a snarl, the gun on her back starting to charge. Confused, Megatron looked up and looked where Redscream was looking. He smirked as he nudged the red Scrapmetal with his foot before addressing the now cowering Ransack and Crumplezone.

"What are you two doing here?" He demanded coldly.

"W-w-we were coming b-b-back to tell you that Hot Shot is starting to look like a threat!" Ransack squeaked.

Megatron growled slightly before Redscream echoed him. "Redscream, that's enough." He stated evenly. "They are on our side."

"That thing has a name?" Crumplezone asked.

Redscream hissed at him before rubbing her head against Megatron's leg. Megatron chuckled before he turned back to the two idiots that he had hired. "This, gentlemen, is Redscream. She is a trained Scrapmetal, but unfortunately only obeys myself and a select other few." He replied.

Ransack brightened slightly. "Are we?" He asked.

Redscream hissed at him. "That answer your question?" Megatron chuckled. Ransack and Crumplezone's faces fell momentarily before they looked up at Megatron as he bent down to stroke her head. "Redscream, assist these two in locating the Speed Planet Cyber Planet Key." He stated evenly.

Redscream looked up at him before tilting her head. She chirped in understanding before she scuttled forward and started burrowing into the sand, this time making sure not to kick sand in Megatron's face. She hadn't meant to the first time, but she wasn't going to do the same thing again. She burrowed deep into the sand before leaving the area as fast as she could. Megatron could only chuckle gently; she was always eager to please.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Starscream moaned as he beat his head against the wall in his personal quarters. Why couldn't he stop thinking about that kiss? It wasn't like he had planned it! He hadn't planned on kissing another femme! She had pinned him, half-blinded him, then proceeded to kiss him! He hadn't had a say in the matter! So why was he unable to stop thinking about it!

He did feel like he betrayed Whitesilence, but it wasn't like he had wanted to swap enerspit with the other femme. Frag, Whitesilence was the only femme he ever wanted to kiss. But…she would feel betrayed. She would feel like he had disregarded their relationship…wouldn't she? Well…maybe she wouldn't, not if he explained everything right. But…what if she didn't believe him?

He groaned as he beat his head against the wall again. He didn't want her to hate him; frag, if he could get up the courage he was asking her to be his sparkmate. Frag asking her father for permission; Megatron could go straight to the deepest, darkest reaches of the Pit for all he cared. He just wanted Whitesilence in his arms, waiting for him when he retreated to his quarters for the night, and willing to keep him happy, even when she was in a bad mood. If that didn't happen because of one stupid attack on him…he would never forgive himself.

He sighed as he turned around and stopped as he caught sight of a cream spike hanging over the side of his bed. He snapped his head straight up and felt his intake stop working as he looked straight into a set of icy blue optics. He felt his spark start pulsing insanely in his chest as he stared at the optics. The optics tilted as the figure tilted their head to the side, a smirk gracing their features before he was distracted by a slim leg being moved.

His optics moved from the optics to watch the white leg move to cross overtop of the other. He felt himself heating up as the figure shifted slightly. "Whitesilence?" He whispered as he forced his optics to focus on the figure's optics.

His spark rose as he saw the smile, his beautiful Whitesilence's smile before a warp gate opened in front of the figure. He yelped as he darted forward, trying to reach it and make her stop, but the warp gate closed and the figure was gone. He stood there, feeling his spark fall in disappointment. Why hadn't she stayed?

'_Not yet time.'_

**Author's note:** Sorry for the wait everyone! And yes, in spite of how well the two figures tried to hide themselves, they missed a few things and got spotted. Now, the panther cub is getting training with Scourge's men and Redscream is helping to find the Speed Planet Key. Did Starscream really see Whitesilence, or was he just seeing what he wanted to? Well, everything will be revealed later! Please leave a review on your way out!


	4. A Glimpse

Chapter 3 A Glimpse

Chapter 3 A Glimpse

Scourge chuckled as he watched the panther cub pin Brimstone down to the platform. With her jaws clamped down on the back of the pterodactyl's neck and a paw pressed down on each of his wings, her optics were bright with excitement at her victory while her tail waved back and forth. Brimstone groaned once before going limp in defeat, even though he hadn't really been trying that hard to win. She waited a moment, no doubt enjoying her "hard earned" win, increasing the pressure on Brimstone's neck before hopping off and cheering.

"I won!" She mewed happily as she bounced around.

"Yes, Spirit, you did very well." Scourge agreed as he walking onto the training area. "But, in a real battle, you would be wise to kill your opponent so they cannot attack you again once your back is turned."

Spirit nodded her head. She had been quick to grasp the concepts that he had told her when her training began. She had a little trouble when it came to using her Cyber Planet Key, but she was getting better and didn't trip over her energon claws, which were designed for her adult form and not her youngling stage, and she was getting better when the new power flooded her systems. The first time it had done that, she had been bouncing off the pillars like she had an energon high. Her attitude needed to be corrected and calmed down a bit, since she still thought like a sparkling, but her enthusiasm was promising, meaning that she would fight with everything she had. Her "name" suited her, even though he had a feeling that she was lying about it. "Spirit" did not seem a proper for her, "Blackspirit" maybe, but definitely not simply "Spirit".

"So," a new voice sounded from behind them, causing Spirit's optics to widen, "this is the youngling you mentioned."

"Ah, Megatron," Scourge chuckled as his protégée spun around, "I see you made it. Yes, this is Spirit."

"H-h-hello," she squeaked nervously, her tail straight up as she sat down on her haunches. "It's a pleasure to meet you…Megatron, was it?" She asked, stumbling over her words slightly.

Megatron's optics narrowed slightly, almost like he was trying to place the panther from a previous encounter, which wasn't unlikely because the femme had been all over the planet already. He opened his mouth to say something just as Spirit's ears twitched to catch a sound that none of them could hear. Her optics brightened before she turned around to face Scourge.

"Are my lessons over for the day, Master?" She asked, her tail twitching with excitement.

"I suppose." Scourge replied with a dark look. "Why?"

"I have to go touch bases with a relative." She replied. "I haven't seen her in a while and she only just arrived in the area. I'll be here tomorrow and train my skid plates off, promise!"

Scourge grunted in response, giving her permission to leave. She bowed again before spinning around and charging off the platform to vanish into the trees; it appeared to be her favourite way off the temple. "Did you open a sparkling-sitting service, Scourge?" Megatron asked with a sneer as he grinned coldly.

"She is a youngling and she is in training." He replied. "She holds much promise and merely needs discipline."

"I'm sure." Megatron replied before he turned. "Has that fool Overhaul bothered you again?"

"No, he hasn't shown his face since our last encounter." Scourge replied smugly, remembering the strange mech rolling around on the ground while trying vainly to get away from his flame-breath.

Megatron snorted before he walked away. "Then, I'll go make sure he isn't in the area. We certainly don't want that trouble-maker anywhere near here, now do we?" He stated. Without waiting for a reply, he transformed and took to the skies.

Scourge snorted back before he turned and walked into his temple. Megatron seemed to be distracted as of late, so he must be using whatever excuse he could get to help get his nerves down. He personally hoped that Overhaul was in the area so that his "friend" could let off some steam. He certainly didn't want the giant mech's fury turned on him; he had a reputation to hold up.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Redscream chirped in annoyance. What was Lord Megatron thinking, pairing HER up with these two idiots? They were holding her up, forcing her to report everything that she found out when the evidence was sitting right in front of them! And if they would learn to keep their mouths shut for more than 20 astroseconds, they might be able to spy for themselves. And it wasn't like they understood her or anything. Lord Megatron must have been out of his mind when he gave the order.

She growled in annoyance at that thought. No, Lord Megatron only thinks about winning; the idiots must have needed her to make them smarter, which was saying something considering she was a Scrapmetal. Although, she was quite intelligent for any Scrapmetal, far more gorgeous as well, loyal, trustworthy, almost everything that a good soldier should be. She kind of wished that Master Starscream was more loyal so that he wouldn't hurt Mistress Whitesilence when he fought with Lord Megatron. Even though she was far away at the moment, she could still feel the pain that coursed through her when she remembered her almost-mate and father arguing.

She growled again before she sat down on her haunches and lifted her back leg to scratch her neck. Those idiots would be here any minute now expecting her to report. If they would just stop yapping they could see for themselves that the Autobot Hotshot was becoming a threat, that Override was still not responding to anything that Lord Megatron told her, and that the old fool Breakdown and his trainee Clocker were aware of the difference between the Decepticons and the Autobots. Lord Megatron must have been very desperate for recruits when he took these two imbeciles into his mighty army.

"Hey there, Reddy!" Great, Ransack. Why he called her "Reddy" was beyond her, considering that she was far more dangerous than some disgusting name as "Reddy". Shudder and hack up the energon she ingested, as Blacksprite often said.

"Do you have anything to report?" Crumplezone asked as he stepped into view.

She bit back her snarl; she might as well humor them. "Well, nothing new really." She replied in growls and chirps. "Hotshot's getting faster though. And you two are too stupid to understand me anyways, so why bother talking to you?" She asked, cooing the last part to see what they would do.

"You know, I don't know why Megatron teamed us up." Ransack stated as he scratched his head. "I can't understand a word that comes out of its mouth. Why didn't Megatron teach it to speak properly?"

She growled before she turned around and walked away. Idiot, she lacked the vocal processors to articulate their words. Ssessh! Did they know nothing about the Transformer anatomy? Not likely, considering they were the dumbest mechs she had ever met in her life, and that was saying something considering how absolutely idiotic Thundercracker was. Frag, could her Lord have chosen someone a little more intelligent? She lifted her head up as a new scent entered her position. She grinned to herself; Override was out for a drive. This could prove interesting, and maybe profitable if she played her cards right.

She raced across the sand dunes at top speed, heading for the road that was lifted up off the ground. With a powerful spring, she hurtled through the air and landed with a soft thud on the road. She looked up and grinned again as Override came into view; time to see what Override though of Scrapmetals. The red racecar slammed on her brakes before transforming to tower over her.

"What's a Scrapmetal doing here?" Override asked, a blaster on her hip.

Redscream chirped sweetly as she crawled forward. She shook her head slightly, wanting Override to drop her guard. She could get this femme to truly trust her before she sent her position to Lord Megatron to come and talk to her. Femmes had a habit of loving mechs with pets, strange sometimes, but effective. Override bent down slowly before reaching out and stroking her helm.

'Yes, that's right, pet me.' Redscream thought victoriously as she searched for Lord Megatron's signal. 'It will speed the process up that much faster!' She found a signal that was familiar and sent the data out.

She heard the warp gate open and felt Override stiffened. "Who the frag are you?" She growled as she stood up.

'_There is no reason to be afraid of me.'_ Whitesilence's voice echoed through her mind. Opps, wrong signal.

"Why do you look like Megatron?" Override demanded as she brought her blaster up. "It's seriously creepy!"

'_What better way to avoid detection than disguising yourself as an enemy?'_ Whitesilence replied. _'You and I have something in common, Mistress of the Speed Planet.'_

"And what would that be?" Override asked, no doubt slightly flattered by her mistress' use of words.

'_Megatron wishes to have something that we possess.'_ Whitesilence replied, no doubt having already scanned Override's mind to discover everything.

Redscream cooed as she walked over to her, rubbing her head against the white leg affectionately. Whitesilence was perfect in her optics; long ago, her body had given way to the curves of maturity and she had stepped into the role of top femme without even realizing it. Tall, silver horns adorned her helm, while they were not as large as her father's; they still showed that she was of superior spark. Her slim physic was alluring to any mech within the army, even though she was completely unaware of the fact. It also belied her strength; if she so desired, she could probably take Megatron down in hand-to-hand combat, not that she ever would though; she was far too loyal to her father to commit such an outrageous act of treason. She might have had a femme's body, but there was a warrior underneath it all, and a clever one at that. Well, that was at least the point that she took it from; a loyal pet never saw their masters as weak.

'**You are here, Mistress.'** She thought happily, directing her thoughts to her mistress. **'Although, I was hoping to reach Lord Megatron to have him convince Override to give him the Cyber Planet Key.'**

Whitesilence smiled at her before crouching down and petting her softly. _'Such a clever little thing, wouldn't you agree?'_ She asked, moving her mouth in time with her words to make it look like she was talking. _'Amazing what a little attention will do.'_

Override blinked a few times before she shook her head. "Wait, back up. What do you mean by "we both have something that Megatron wants"?"

'_Megatron wants to be able to control Scrapmetals because they multiply quickly and are much better soldiers than the average mech. Megatron wants the Cyber Planet Key of the Speed Planet.'_ Whitesilence replied as she straightened up. Her blue optics narrowed slightly. _'Do you even know where it is?'_

Override nodded. "Yeah, but I'm not going to tell you where. It's safer that way." She replied. Whitesilence nodded, while sending Redscream a picture of where the Key was located after she had dug it out of Override's CPU.

'_Well, I would love to stay and chat, or race perhaps, but I have other places to be at the moment.'_ Whitesilence stated as she turned around and opened another dimension gate. She glanced back and grinned. _'It's pays to know what the warp sequence your enemy uses.'_ She laughed. Redscream crooned as she followed her mistress; she'd come back later to find Megatron.

"Wait!" Override shouted as Whitesilence took a step towards the dimension gate. "What can I call you? How can I be sure I can trust you if we meet up again?"

Whitesilence grinned cruelly down at Redscream before softening it as she turned to look back at the red racer. _'Call me Silence.'_ She replied before she stepped through the warp gate, Redscream following obediently.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Where is she?" The panther cub muttered as she raced into the clearing. "She told me to meet her here, but where is she?!"

Megatron crouched down in the bushes beside the clearing. His optics narrowed in concentration as he watched the black cub pace. It looked so familiar, not to mention sounded familiar. Spirit; what an odd name. Surely her parents could have come up with something a little more creative. Her pacing paused before her ears snapped up. She let out a happy giggle as a smile bloomed across her muzzle.

"Auntie!" She shouted as she spun around and charged into the undergrowth.

"Frag." He muttered as he stood up. "It's going to take a while to catch up again."

He hurried after the youngling, keeping to the trees as much as he could. He could hear her giggling up ahead, taunting someone no doubt. He could hear an angry snarl from another being, no doubt the one getting taunted by the pint-sized terror. He inched closer slowly, making sure that he wasn't making too much noise; he didn't want to alert the other Transformers to his presence. He had a feeling that the panther cub was hiding something, whether it was that it worked for the Autobots was still under debate, although why they would recruit such a pathetic little thing for a spy was beyond him. Spies had to be mature, intelligent, and able to blend in; this little youngling stood out too much.

He heard a soft gasp. "Really?" The panther cub asked. "Oh no! But I didn't hear anyone following me!"

There was a low growl before he saw the youngling come darting towards him, mouth opened as if it was going to bite him. He lifted an optic ridge before the cub slammed on its brakes and stared up at him. It swallowed before sitting down and closing its optics. It gave an open-mouthed smile before lifting its paw and waving.

"Hi!" She giggled nervously. "What brings you out to this neck of the woods?"

Megatron growled slightly before he straightened up, giving the youngling a hard look. "Whatever my reasons for being out here are, they are none of your concern." He replied coldly.

She cringed slightly at his tone, the smile vanishing. "Well…you don't have to be so rude about it!" She snapped as she hopped back to her feet, glaring at him from what could be described as a cute face.

"Excuse me?" He asked coldly, narrowing his optics. "What did you just say to me?"

"You heard me!" She squeaked, her courage vanishing just as fast as it had appeared. "I mean, it's not MY fault that you're…an old grouch!" She spat, grinning like she had just said that most clever thing.

His optics narrowed. "I beg your pardon?" He growled as he took a step forward.

"Yeah! And, um, yeah." She muttered as her ears fell back against her head and she backed up a step. "You're so old…you make a red super giant look young!" She added, not realizing that she was just infuriating him more.

"You insolent little brat!" Megatron snarled as a burst of electricity shot out of his hand at her. She screamed and hit the ground with her paws over her head in defense. "How dare you insult me!"

There was a loud snarl before something very big hit him from the side. "No!" He heard the cub hiss. "Get out of here stupid! Primus, I thought you were supposed to be smart! Vamoose!"

He growled as he regained his footing, spinning around just in time to see a flash of red vanish into the undergrowth, closely followed by the panther cub. He snarled before he took a step forward to follow, but something made him stop; a mere whisper in his mind, a distant voice telling him that it wasn't worth his time to give chase. He paused concentrating on the voice, trying to figure out where it had come from and what it was doing intruding in his mind. There was a soft laugh before he heard the voice again.

'_You'll understand later, sire.'_ The voice whispered before disappearing as if it had never been there to begin with.

Megatron gave his head an angry shake; he must have been imagining the voice. He turned and headed back towards the temple, transforming into his jet mode to get there faster. He didn't care about the panther cub anymore; if she was at the temple, he would let Scourge deal with her.

He missed the white figure walk out into the clearing shaking its head, the panther cub giggling beside it as she skipped along. The red Scrapmetal beside the figure hissing as it collapsed in fatigue from the attack on him. Or even the icy blue optics that followed him, waiting and calculating when it would be safe to let him know of their presence.


	5. Reasons

Chapter 4 Reasons

Mercy; the Autobots' claim to fame. What good did mercy do the one begging for it? Whenever they start begging for it, it usually means that the individual's damage is incredibly lethal, so why spare them? It would only make them suffer longer; make them wish for an end. Why did the Autobots act like mercy was the most important thing when dealing with the enemy? When it came down to it, at least the Decepticons killed their victims the moment they started begging for mercy; better to end it and not let them suffer any longer.

She snorted slightly, thinking bitterly of her enemies as she walked briskly along the hallway. She had to find the room again as quickly as she could; she did not want to get caught out in the open. She couldn't help but think about the mech that she had killed earlier on Earth. It had been too easy to track him and capture him. He wasn't the civilian that he claimed to be; the liar had been an undercover agent for the Autobots to keep an optic on the other civilians, the real ones. If there was something she hated more than an Autobot, it was a lying Autobot. He had mistaken her for another Decepticon, quite reasonable considering her remarkable resemblance, but he had quickly crossed the line and she thanked her silent nature; he never saw her attack coming.

How quickly his arm had detached itself from the shoulder when she had tugged it. It was sad really, how weak the Autobots' armor was when it came to such things; they were not designed to handle torture. She was quick to silence him with a punch to the face, happy for her height advantage over the mech. He had stumbled, giving her a chance to quickly assess his weak points; she was sickened by the number that she had found. His knees, his left hip, shoulder joint, right hand, the list went on and on. How could an Autobot let themselves have so many Primus forbidden weaknesses?!

It had taken the course of a half-hour to render him helpless and withering on the ground. Sure, she had her fair share of scratches and tears, but she had done more damage. She had gone down into a crouch beside him, grinning and baring her fangs as he looked weakly up at her. Then he had said it.

"Mercy. Please, I beg for mercy."

She had looked at him straight in the optic, taken in his soft yellow optics and snarled in her mind. He was not made for war; what afthole had forced him into this position? The mech…he was more of a youngling than her own adopted niece! She leant in closer, giving him the full glare of her optics and to see the feminine look to her face.

'_I'm a Decepticon, I don't give mercy.'_ She had hissed to him telepathically before spreading her mouth wide open and exposing her four deadly pointed fangs to him, knowing that a thin thread of saliva was connected to at least two of them, before lunging and driving them deep into the Autobot's throat.

He screamed weakly, thrashing underneath her, striking her wounded arm and widening the gash that had been formed there. She bit down harder, tearing through tubes and wires, feeling the energon rush into her mouth, down her throat. Hot, sticky, tasty, one of the things she loved about this part and yet, a tear had trickled down her face, landing on the ground and letting out a soft sizzle as the diluted energon ate away at the ground. Something was different now; he wasn't a battle-hardened soldier like the ones she had killed in the trenches beside the battle-fields, or the ones that had dared to try to kidnap her sparkling in the night during a raid on their base. This was a youngling, just like her adopted…just like her baby. It hit her full force at that moment and she almost released him to let out an inaudible howl of agony; she was killing a _baby_. She felt her shoulders tremble before she sliced her fangs through the last few wires, holding the mech's voice transmitter in between her teeth. She wrenched back, ripping it out fully, breaking the skin and armor that had still been in place when she had moved in for the kill.

She spat the transmitter away, tears streaming down her face as she turned back to the Autobot. Everything had happened in the course of a few seconds and already he was fading away. She wouldn't have long to truly apologize, but it was better than mercy. She leant in close, kissing his forehead like she use to when her sparkling was going to sleep.

'_I don't give mercy, youngling.'_ She whispered. _'But I am giving you something much better; release.'_ She murmured before she felt him slip away from them forever. _'Sleep well, little one.'_

She wiped the lingering tears away as she reached the door she that she was searching for. She smiled weakly before she typed in the access code that she had long ago memorized. _'Three-two-nine-five-six-one-two.'_ She murmured to herself as the door slid open. _'Predictable as ever.'_

She slipped into the room quickly, sliding the door closed behind her before it had time to reach the other wall. She grinned at how quick she had gotten over the past few months alone; without her extra duties she had more time to train. And with that training, she had become stronger and swifter, adding onto her already impressive abilities. Her telepathy had become stronger in a small degree; she could sense the thoughts of anyone within a 50 meter radius of her, if she chose to. But right now, she didn't need any of her powers or battle prowess; she just needed time to be alone…or rather, as alone as she could get with another mech in the room.

She glanced over at the mech and smiled gently at his recharging form. His white face was peaceful as he recharge on his side, his arm pillowed under his head and his knees drawn up slightly to his chest. She could see the edges of his wings sticking out from his arms, reminding her just how much she loved them and how sensitive they were. She walked slowly towards the slumbering mech, carefully placing her feet down so she wouldn't awaken him. He shifted slightly in his recharge, shifting his head lower on his arm so his face was pointing to his chest.

She paused, waiting for him to groan and online his optics, forcing her to bolt. She knew that he was always groggy when he first onlines so she would have a chance before he woke up to vanish back through the warp gate. She counted the seconds as they slipped by, slowly, anxiously waiting until she heard his breathing slow down again. She felt her chest deflate as a breath that she hadn't realized that she had been holding slipped past her lips. She moved forward again, slowly and carefully placing her feet, her optics focused solely on the prone form of the large Seeker.

When she reached the edge of the bed, she paused again, listening to the larger mech's breathing. In, out, in, out; completely unaware of her presence beside him. He was so calm and yet…she knew that he was a killer. Just like every other Decepticon, just like Megatron, just like…her. She felt another tear roll down her cheek and fall with a small splat against the edge of the bed. Had he ever regretted killing someone? Or was it just her that regretted the death of the Autobot?

She stood there for another moment before she tried to crawl onto the bed. This was always the tricky part; getting onto the bed without waking him up. Her chest pushed against his as she managed to slip one of her legs between his, wrapping her other leg around the bottom one and holding it. She placed her head gently under his, resting her horns on either side of his neck and her lips against his collar. Her arms wrapped slowly around his chest, moving only when he breathed in and stalling when he breathed out. Within the span of ten minutes, she had curled herself up into the body of the larger mech without him even realizing that she was there.

She smiled as she lay there, cuddled up to her boyfriend's chest without him realizing she was even there. It was such a common thing now that she didn't feel nervous lying there anymore. She knew that the wounds on her body needed to be repaired, but she didn't want to leave again. Her wounds had stopped bleeding anyways, so there wasn't going to be any sign that she had been there. She powered her optics down, letting her mind keep tabs on her boyfriend's recharge and to alert her if he started to wake up. She drifted into a needed recharge, not worrying about any reaction from the slumbering mech; Starscream had always been a deep recharger.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Redscream growled slightly as she walked beside Megatron, leading him below the ground to where she had learnt the Speed Planet Cup was hidden away. She hated doing this, begin below ground and away from where she could easily burrow under the ground to hide away from the enemy. How long had they been underground for? An hour? Two hours? Maybe three.

"Now which way?" Megatron demanded as he paused.

She growled again, sniffing around a little bit at the beginning of the fork in the road. She was mostly looking for Override's scent, anything to give her a clearer picture to find her way to the entrance to where the Cyber Key was hidden. She picked up a faint trace of the scent, easily identifying it as Override and headed down the left corridor. She heard Megatron chuckle before his heavy foot falls followed behind her. She spun around a few time to make sure he was keeping up with her; she was much faster than he was when she started going.

She stopped at another wall and door and started pacing in front of it. Override's scent was more powerful here; she had been here recently. Megatron chuckled as he stopped beside her, giving her the hand signal to stand down. Redscream walked behind him, still pacing, instincts that she couldn't fight back demanding the energon that went along with the scent. Megatron laughed as he tossed an energon goodie to her, earning a wild growl before she pounced and quickly devoured the square shaped treat.

She backed up and sat down, waiting for Megatron to get the Cup; she knew that she would get more treats after he recovered it. She watched him shoot out blasts of electric energy from his hands and waited for him to move. He grunted angrily when he saw that the door was still in place.

"It would appear that I will have to wait for the race after all." He stated coldly as he turned around.

He glanced down at Redscream as she walked slowly towards him, cooing and rubbing her head against his leg. She cooed and rolled over onto her back, waving her legs in the air. He chuckled as he bent down to rub her stomach, earning a happy purr as she went limp. He shook his head as he stood up, taking a few energon goodies out of his sub-space. He watched in amusement as the Scrapmetal leapt to her feet and her backend started waving back and forth.

"Sit." He commanded. She sat her down quickly, her cock-pit head focused solely on the energon goodie. "Lay down." She flattened herself down onto her stomach, growling slightly at the less than dignified procedures. "Roll over." She glared at him, growling angrily, but she rolled over; there was nothing she wouldn't do for an energon goodie.

Megatron chuckled before he flicked the energon goodie to her, watching carefully as she leapt into the air to catch it. She purred as she devoured the treat, diving into and savoring the taste. He shook his head before he turned around and started heading back above ground. He glanced back and smirked as she easily scurried after him, chirping contently.

"Whitesilence would kill me for giving you those." He commented. She looked up at him and purred cutely. "Starscream and Blacksprite would probably join in."

She chirped again before scurrying ahead of him as they reached the surface. She leapt forward before burrowing into the sand, vanishing quickly into the sand. She stuck her head out and chirped again.

"Yes, you have to report back to Ransack and Crumplezone in the morning." He stated evenly.

She let out a low growl before vanishing back into the sand; well there goes blowing off the next days report.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Spirit crept quietly through the temple, her tail barely an inch above the ground. She wasn't supposed to be there; Scourge had told her that she wasn't allowed to, not after Snarl had betrayed them by helping Overhaul, who had been upgraded into Leobreaker. He didn't want her where something special was kept. He must have suspected something when the metal lion had attacked everyone but her.

She growled slightly as she thought about it. Why would she align herself with the likes of that loser? He had been one of the Autobots! She HATED them! Well, she supposed that Scourge had his reasons to be testy and untrusting; he was guarding the Cyber Planet Key of his homeworld. She grinned as she thought about that; she was a genius to have figured it all out. Scourge was hiding the Key somewhere in the temple, so all she had to do was locate it, alert her Auntie to where it was hidden, and it would be theirs.

"Come out, come out wherever you are." She muttered to herself as she crawled along slowly.

She approached the throne with the giant dragon statuette behind it and frowned. She glanced around her before she giggled and leapt onto the throne. She sat up straight and began to make commanding motions, pretending to order a bunch of underlings around. She giggled again before she heard a snort and her ears perked up. She turned to look to her left and blanched.

"I believe that Scourge told you that you were not allowed within the temple." Megatron stated coldly as he glared at her.

She gulped before she lowered her head and flattened her ears against her head, trying to make herself look cute and innocent. He pulled his head back, showing that he was not impressed by her antics. With a small mew of apology she leapt off the throne and began to walk away, but then she heard a faint humming noise.

Her ears perked up and she paused in mid-stride. She turned back around to face the throne, tilting her head curiously until she spotted the statuette. It appeared to have brightened somewhat, almost like an internal fire was raging within it. She blinked once, remembering how it had appeared to pulse when Scourge had been attacking Leobreaker before he had gotten reformatted. Her optics widened in understanding; the statuette was the Cyber Planet Key!

She let out a squeal of delight before she spun around and shot out of the temple; she had to get to the meeting point before dawn to let her Auntie now what she had found out.

**Author's note:** And that's that. I decided to start off with Whitesilence in the beginning because she hasn't been getting a lot of attention yet. She regretted killing an Autobot because he was a youngling and to her they are precious. She killed him anyways because he would have died painfully and slowly rather than swiftly and almost unknowingly. Judging by how good she is at sneaking into bed with Starscream, you have to wonder how many times she's done that in her life. Redscream is acting like a dog and hates it, but she got a reward, so she's happy. And little Spirit is a snoopy little thing that still thinks she's a sparkling. Well, please leave a review for me, thanks!


	6. Spotted

Chapter 5 Spotted

Humans; they were almost as disgusting as Autobots. She snarled to herself as she watched the three human sparklings that were constantly with the Autobots walking down some mountain trail, laughing their heads off about something. They were so pitifully weak and vulnerable, yet unlike most sparklings, she felt no sympathy for them. They were disgusting, flesh beings; organic contaminates that were so infuriating it drove her straight up a wall. They had something to be proud of; only Thundercracker beat them at that.

"So, Coby, what's the deal with Hot Shot and Red Alert on the Speed Planet?" The female asked, turning to look at the male next to her.

"As far as I'm aware, they're still looking for leads to the Cyber Planet Key." The male replied.

She snorted quietly as she watched them walk past, not even aware of her presence. Although, it wasn't surprising since they were not use to having Decepticons watching their every move; she had to admit that her faction was getting oddly lazy for some reason. Most of the time, they would have held these sparklings for ransom…but then again, they weren't normal sparklings and the Autobots might not have as much connection to them as they would their own genetic sparklings.

"I hope they find it soon." The younger male stated. "That black hole is really creepy…you know, since Scattershot always has it on the monitor."

So, the Autobots told the humans about their predicament; well, at least these humans were making an attempt to save their sorry hides. She watched as they reached the bend in the trail, blocking them from any scanners that might have been from the Autobots' base; all the Decepticons knew it was somewhere in the area, they just didn't know _where_ it was to give a specific location. She moved silently forward, growling to herself as she steeled herself for her task; she only had to hold onto the disgusting creatures long enough to get the information she needed, then she could drop them and step on them if she chose.

She moved forward swiftly, not wanting them to get back where the Autobots could watch them; the cannon only gave her so much coverage. Redscream was stationed farther ahead, waiting in hiding just in case the humans tried to run back the way they came. They had often used this tactic when they use to hunt Autobots down on the battlefield. "Hey, do you hear something?" The older male asked, coming to a quick stop and shivering.

"No, why?" The female asked, still walking forward.

"I could have sworn I heard the rocks crunching…like something was moving towards us and fast." The male replied, glancing around.

"You're hearing things, bro." The younger male replied as he waved a hand in the air.

She grinned; this was going to be enjoyable. She crept forward more, drawing out into the open until she was almost right on top of the humans. She gave a laugh in her mind, broadcasting it to the humans and watching as they started.

'_Back here, fleshlings.'_ She sneered before she moved forward quickly.

She grabbed the female and slammed her into the rock face, earning a scream of pain. She bared her fangs as she tore through the organic blob's mind, finding hundreds of pointless thoughts; who cared if their shoes matched their shirt anyways? She found only one thing of any use to her in the recesses of her mind; the Autobots were very close to locating the Omega Lock. She let out a low snort of approval before she tossed the human to the side, watching with amusement as her bounced off the ground and scream.

"Is that Megatron?" One of the males asked.

'_No, I'm not Megatron.'_ She replied as she turned around, grinning cruelly down at the humans.

The males backed away before one of them darted over to the female. "Lori! Lori, come on!" The elder male hissed.

She chuckled to herself before she snapped forward and scooped the male up, scanning through his mind. She grinned; well, her father should enjoy that little tidbit of information about where their base was. She dropped him on the ground, listening to the bones snap as his feet took all the weight of his body as it hit the ground. He screamed in pain, rolling onto his back and trying to curl up to ease the pain in his legs.

'_Your turn.'_ She cooed to the last male, flashing her optics. _'Are you ready to give up your secrets?'_ She asked as the male tried to bolt, only to scream as Redscream leapt out from the rocks where she had been told to wait and chased him back, jaws snapping at his heels. _'No? Oh, that's too bad; you don't have a choice.'_ She cackled before she grabbed the human.

He struggled against her, trying in vain to get out of her grip. She laughed as she dug through his mind, finding all the information that she needed; this human didn't have any form of defenses to protect his most guarded secrets. Every Autobot that was in constant contact with their base was given to her, every "civilian" that was hidden away within the town, even the innermost secrets of Optimus Prime and his mechs stationed on Earth were revealed to her.

She laughed again before she dropped the male onto the ground, listening as his bones broke on impact. _'Have fun, fleshlings.'_ She crooned as Redscream scuttled over to her, rubbing her head against her leg affectionately. _'I'm sure the Autobots will find you eventually.'_ She added as she opened a warp gate, grinning over her shoulder. _'Oh look, here they come now.'_ She laughed as she walked through the gate, Redscream snickering at her heels.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Megatron looked down at the Scrapmetal as she dug into the sand, looking for the gem that Ransack had stolen. He had to admit that Ransack was braver than her had originally thought; only someone really brave would touch the gem that Redscream had attached to her front leg…either that or they were incredibly stupid.

"More to your left." He sighed as she gave a distressed cry.

She chirped curiously before she spun around and leapt on the gem that was poking out of the sand where it had fallen after she had shot Ransack halfway back to the roadway. She picked the gem up, purring happily before she scuttled over to him, lifting the gem up towards him. He sighed as he shook his head, reaching down and picking up the gem from the Scrapmetal's mouth. He placed it back on her leg, muttering slightly as she rubbed her head happily against his chest plate.

"You are the strangest Scrapmetal in the Universe." He muttered as he pulled back.

She purred in reply, rubbing her head against his leg before scuttling off, pausing only long enough to burrow back into the sand. He shook his head before he transformed into this jet mode and took off, heading for one of the mountain tops to think; Whitesilence had contacted him with some interesting news. How she had gathered it meant only one thing; she was on Earth, escaping both Autobot and Decepticon detection.

He landed on the mountain, transforming before he turned to stare up at the sky. He narrowed his optics before he sent a very concentrated thought to his daughter. **'Show yourself.'** He growled.

'_You don't sound happy about it.'_ She replied as the warp gate closed behind him, causing him to spin around, and shooting electricity out at her on reflex. She dodged it with ease, grinning at the antic before shaking her head. _'You're oddly jumpy.'_

"I thought I gave you an order to stay on Cybertron." He growled as he glared down at her.

'_Oh, yeah, about that.'_ She chuckled as she rubbed the back of her head. _'Yeah…I figured that since you needed extra assistance….'_

"I gave you an order, Whitesilence." He growled as he took a step closer. "I expect it to be followed."

'_Look, I know I disobeyed a direct order,'_ she growled, _'but you needed the help. Ransack, Crumplezone, and Thundercracker sure weren't getting you anywhere!'_

He growled in reply before he grabbed her by the throat. "I don't care if I was the only one searching for the Keys; you were given your orders." He snapped.

She bared her fangs at him, one of the few defenses she had given her position. _'So, I'm supposed to just sit on Cybertron while the black hole gets bigger and stronger and do nothing while my boyfriend and father risk their necks to go on an intergalactic scavenger hunt?!"_ She demanded.

"I don't care what you did, as long as you remained behind." He snapped as he threw her slightly to the left, causing her to stumble. "You were given those orders for a reason."

'_What? So that you can hide me away from all of this?'_ She demanded as she spun to glare at him. _'News flash father; the black hole is right beside Cybertron! I'm part of this war and search whether you like it or not.'_

He growled. "Either you get your aft back to Cybertron, or I will dismantle you for scrap!" He snarled.

She glared at him for another moment before she let out a snort. _'That's a bluff.'_ She stated calmly. _'You would never dismantle your own sparkling.'_

He paused, hating how she just seemed to know what he was thinking because she was telepathic, before snarling. "You want to test that theory?" He asked.

'_You wouldn't because you don't want to lose my loyalty.'_ She replied evenly. _'You know that if you hurt me, my loyalty will turn to Starscream, and you don't want that.'_ She added with a sneer.

He paused for a moment, thinking through what she had just said and silently cursed himself; of course she would turn to Starscream. He growled again, shooting her a dark glare. "Very well, if you want to stay, so be it. But, you are not to make contact with any of the other Decepticons, understood?" He spat.

'_Of course, Megatron sir.'_ She replied as she bowed.

"Get out of my sight." He snarled before he opened a warp gate. "Go on, get!" She chuckled lightly before she stepped through the gate, giving him a backwards glance before it closed behind her. "Impertinent brat."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Scourge," Blackspirit chirped as she leapt over the log that had fallen across the path to the temple, "what's with the statue behind your throne?"

He glanced back at her, watching with amusement as she panted and looked ready to collapse. "Why do you ask?" He replied.

"Because it's a dragon." She replied as she trotted weakly up beside him. "And you are a dragon."

"The statue takes on the form of the leader of the Jungle planet." He chuckled as he looked down at her, tossing his head from side to side.

"So…if I was to become the leader, it would change to look like a panther?" She asked as she glanced up at him.

"Yes, but you have little chance of becoming the leader at your age." He replied as he started walking again.

"Ok, so, maybe not right now," she replied as she trotted after him. "But when I'm older, if I became leader, it would change its shape?"

"Yes, but that is still a very long way off; you lack the fighting ability of a true leader of this planet." He replied as he started to lope back to the temple.

"I'll get better!" She shouted after him as she started running after him. "Just you watch! I'll take over after you're ready to retire." She added as a joke.

He laughed as he glanced down at the youngling, enjoying its upbeat nature, even if it was a little farfetched. "I'll be waiting for that day with baited breath."

She grinned as she began to speed up, flattening herself out to decrease wind resistance. "Race you back, old mech!" She shouted as she took off.

He laughed as he chased after her, barely pushing himself to keep up with her; he might as well give her the real statistics that she was going up against. She growled as he easily passed by her, starting to take the steps three at a time. He chuckled as he watched her increase her speed, trying desperately to keep up even as her energy began to run out. He leapt onto the platform, skidding to a stop before he turned around to look for his protégé. She dragged herself onto the platform, panting heavily with her tongue hanging out.

"Ok, maybe it will take me longer than I thought." She muttered as she pulled herself weakly to her feet.

"Much longer at the rate you're training." He replied before he transformed.

She growled slightly before she walked slowly to one of the pillars and collapsed beside it. "Well, I'm taking a catnap." She muttered as her optics dimmed and she drifted off.

"Sleep well, youngling." He chuckled before he turned and entered the temple. "You're training will become harder come tomorrow." He added to himself; he had never really thought about when he would finish ruling. But, he didn't mind giving his title to the youngling when he was ready to step down; she certainly believed in everything that he was teaching her. Perhaps she would make a fine leader, one day.

**Author's note:** And Megatron is now aware of Whitesilence disobeying him and she used blackmail to get what she wanted. Megatron probably shouldn't have been so lenient when she had been growing up. And Scourge is thinking about letting the panther cub take over when she's older. Do you know who the kid is? Bet you do.


	7. Jungle Planet Showdown

Chapter 6 Jungle Planet Showdown

Redscream growled as she scurried after Megatron; how could they have lost the Speed Planet Key? How? They had everything planned out! Override and Hot Shot were going to race each other, along with Ransack and Crumplezone, and bring the barrier around the cup down, leaving it wide open for Megatron to steal. But, of course, the Autobots turned up and ruined everything. What else was new in their life? So, Megatron got a pounding from the combined teamwork of Prime and some feline named Leobreaker.

"They will pay for what occurred, Redscream." Megatron stated calmly as he walked through the temple of Jungle Planet.

She hissed in approval, her shoulder cannon whirling at the thought of battle; she hadn't been allowed to help out of the fact that Whitesilence would have slaughtered him if her precious pet was injured critically; her mistress was slightly over protective, but she loved her all the same. Of course, having a Scrapmetal that Override thought was her friend fighting with Megatron would have blown their cover right out of the water, so to speak, and Whitesilence needed the trust that Override had in her to use to her advantage now that the stupid glitch was an Autobot.

Now, they were facing a bigger problem; Scourge, the leader of the Jungle Planet, had agreed to fight Optimus Prime one-on-one, for leadership of the planet and the possession of the Cyber Planet Key. After all the time that Lord Megatron had spent with him, he was going to give it to the _Autobots_!

"You're pet's hissing again." The little panther cub commented as it trotted up to them. "What's wrong with it?" She asked as she gave her shoulder a small shove.

She growled at the youngling. "You are so lucky that the Lord is here." She hissed and growled, earning a giggle from the femme.

"It's funny; it really thinks I can understand it." Blackspirit commented with a small giggle, wiggling her ears.

"You will be lucky if she doesn't bite you." Megatron stated coldly.

She shrugged before she trotted towards the entrance to the temple, flattening her ears out as she stood by one of the pillars. "Why would Master Scourge agree to fight this loser?" She demanded with a hiss. "Grr, I hate these Autobots."

"Don't we all." Megatron snorted as he stood beside the youngling. He glared at Scourge's back as the tyrant waited for Prime to arrive.

"What is taking him?" Scourge demanded.

"Perhaps he got a CPU and decided to back out." Blackspirit chirped as she licked her paw. "Who in their right mind would challenge someone that they could never hope to defeat?"

"Who indeed." Megatron snorted in disgust, no doubt thinking about Starscream.

Redscream glanced at the cub and shook her head slightly, stopping her from letting out some smart remark. The last thing they needed was for her to give away anything so soon; they still needed to keep tabs on things on the Jungle Planet if Prime lost. But she had a sinking feeling that even with the delay, Prime was going to win; the combined team of Optimus and Leobreaker would surely deactivate Scourge without hesitation. She shifted slightly beside Megatron, hissing her disproval at the situation.

"Enough, Redscream." Megatron ordered, not bothering to glance down at her as Optimus' head appeared over the edge of the temple stairs.

"I'm sorry I'm late." Prime stated evenly. "We ran into a little trouble on the way here."

"What do you mean?" Scourge asked.

"Why don't you ask your friend Megatron." Leobreaker replied, pointing at him.

Redscream hissed at him, bristling up before Megatron snorted slightly. "I don't know what you're talking about." He replied as he turned and walked away.

Redscream paused, waiting for the order to follow him but never received it. She cooed before sitting down and staring at the Autobots, growling in her throat as the cub continued to lick her paw, shooting the other mechs glares. She watched as Override jumped onto the platform in her car mode and she detected another scent; the human female that she had watched her mistress extract information from. She hissed happily, leaping to her feet as her cannon hummed; wouldn't her mistress be happy if she brought the femme to her as a bargaining chip…or better yet, destroyed the femme in front of the Autobots to lower their moral.

She watched the human step out of Override and she stepped forward with a low hiss. The human's eyes widened and she lifted her hand to point at her. "That…that…that's the thing that…," she started to whimper, backing up in terror.

Redscream let out a shriek as she leapt forward, only to have Optimus shoot at her. "Don't even think about it, you little Scrapmetal."

She hissed at him, scurrying back and forth before sitting down and growling. The panther cub flicked her tail back and forth in annoyance before glaring at Optimus. "Well, I don't think that was necessary." She stated with a snort. "Really, it's not like it can stop its natural instinct to attack things that are smaller than it." She added as she licked her paw and rubbed it past her ear.

"And you are?" Optimus asked as he narrowed his optics.

"The kid's referred to as "Spirit", but it obviously isn't her real name." Leobreaker replied.

"No slag." Redscream muttered to herself as she sat patiently, waiting for the fight to begin.

"Well, you came here for a fight, now let's fight." Scourge snarled.

"Kick his aft!" "Spirit" roared as she leapt up and down. Redscream purred in agreement; Scourge had to win if they had a hope in possibly obtaining the Cyber Planet Key.

Scourge chuckled before he charged at Prime after he teamed up with Leobreaker into Savage Claw Mode. It didn't take long for the fight to intensify; Scourge put up a unbelievable defense against Optimus and Leobreaker, even going as far as knocking the two mechs onto their aft and stepping on Leobreaker/Optimus' arm. "Spirit" was cheering him on, racing back and forth in front of the entrance in the excitement of everything. Optimus and Leobreaker got back up of course and switched arms as to which side Leobreaker would join on. The fight continued for another few minutes, both combatants striking each other with unimaginable power until Optimus somehow managed to punch Scourge across the face, causing the dragon to collapse at his feet.

"No!" "Spirit" hissed as she leapt forward. "Get up, Master Scourge!"

Undermine and Brimstone shouted similar statements until Scourge told them to shut up. He looked up at Optimus, the side of his face holding a purple hint before he growled. "Go on, finish me." He growled. "It's your right."

Optimus stood there for a moment before shaking his head. "No, Scourge, that's not how we fight." He replied, stepping back slightly. "You fought well."

Scourge stood up, looking up at Optimus with the slightest hint of admiration. "Very well." He replied before he turned and led the Autobots into the temple.

"No, no, no!" "Spirit" hissed as she leapt over to Redscream. "He's going to ruin everything!"

The Scrapmetal growled in agreement before scurrying after them, watching as they stopped in front of the large dragon statue. Scourge reached up towards it and it glowed bright green before it began to shrink. The panther cub raced past, leaping onto Scourge's back and pushing off, catching the hovering, newly-formed Cyber Planet Key in her jaws. She landed on the platform that the statue use to stand on and snarled at the shocked Autobots.

"Spirit, drop that." Scourge snapped as he stepped forward.

Redscream hissed in reply, charging forward and knocking the Jungle Planet leader onto his front before leaping up beside her smaller partner. "Spirit" glanced at her before she turned her head slightly and opened the dimension gate behind them.

"That panther's a Decepticon!" Leobreaker shouted.

She grinned around the Cyber Key before she spun around and leapt through the gate, closely followed by Redscream and the gunfire of the Autobots.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"I can't believe this!" Megatron roared as he fired off his electric pulses into the side of the volcano. "That fool! He gave the Autobots the Key!"

"We could always fight them for it." Thundercracker stated weakly.

"Or…," Starscream started to say when he heard a dimension gate open behind him. He turned around, with everyone else, and watched as the panther cub that tagged along with Scourge everywhere leap out, closely followed by a red Scrapmetal. "What the?" He demanded as the cub raced past him, something green and glowing in her mouth.

She stopped in front of Megatron, panting and huffing, before she reared up and placed her paws on Megatron's front, stretching her head towards him. "For you!" She said around the thing in her mouth.

Megatron's eyes narrowed in anger at the fact that she was on him but held his hand out for the thing in her mouth. She dropped it in and their mouths fell open in shock. "The Cyber Planet Key!" They gasped in shock.

"Yup!" She giggled as she leapt away, swaying her tail back and forth in excitement. "Stole it right out from under all of their noses!"

Megatron chuckled darkly as he sub-spaced the Key. "Well, this is surprising, cub." He stated as he eyed her. "I didn't think you would betray Scourge."

"He was going to give it to the Autobots!" She growled in reply, flattening her ears against her head before leaning it to the side. "Wait…cub?" She asked. "You don't…?" She let out a low meow before slumping down and sighing angrily. "Well this sucks."

"What is she going on about?" Thundercracker asked, eyeing the Scrapmetal slightly as it trotted over to the cub and licked her head slightly. "And why is your pet licking her?"

Starscream was quite for a moment, his purple eyes narrowed while he held his chin with his right hand. He remembered that the panther was always upbeat and hyper, even with Scourge's heavy training schedule weighing down on her. She always seemed to hide when he or Megatron turned up, almost as if she was scared to stick around. She appeared to know who they were when she first saw them, and she could open a dimension gate. Only Decepticons, and ones that have been taught how to, could open them. Where could she have learnt it, and why was Redscream being so loving towards her? She _never_ took to anyone that he, Megatron, or Whitesilence didn't introduce her to, and she certainly didn't _lick_ them. So, who could the panther cub be?

Redscream snarled at Thundercracker, showing just what she thought of his statement. Starscream tilted his head as he watched the way that his girlfriend's pet seemed to hover almost protectively over the panther. Who would she protect like that? Unless…no, that wasn't possible. "Spirit." He muttered quietly. "Scourge called her Blackspirit…drop an "i" and it's…," his optics widened before he took a step forward and growled. "Blacksprite!"

"What?" Megatron demanded as he turned to face him. The panther cub lifted her head, her optics shining happily before she caught the infuriated look on Starscream's face. "What did you just call her?"

"You little brat! Why are you here?" Starscream demanded as he stormed forward and picked the cub up by the scruff of her neck. "Better yet, why is your alt. mode a panther?!"

"Ow, you're hurting me." She mewed as she hung there.

"Answer my questions." He growled, not impressed that his adopted niece was away from Whitesilence's protection.

"I'm here because Auntie told me to." She mewed pathetically. "And I've had a panther alt. mode forever! Auntie just told me never to show you because she was scared you'd all just treat me like an animal instead of another Transformer."

"Whitesilence sent you here?!" Starscream shouted, causing her to flinch. "Why would she do that?!"

"Because I know this place like the back of my paw." She whimpered. "Where do you think I came from, Cybertron?" She asked with a weak giggle.

"Yes, actually, I did." Starscream replied with a frown. "How could you have wound up on Cybertron if you were original from the Jungle Planet?"

"I have no idea." She replied with a small shrug. "One minute I was chasing around another femme, the next I'm running for my life from some demented Autobot."

"But how could you have hidden the fact that you changed into a panther from us?" Megatron asked, narrowing his optics.

"Auntie is very good with making disguises." Blacksprite chirped as she flicked her tail. "And it wasn't hard…as long as I didn't try to start licking my hand."

"This would explain why you tended to purr so much." Starscream chuckled before he brought her close to his chest and allowed her to curl up.

Redscream chirped as she rubbed her head against his leg, wanting some of the attention too. He chuckled as he reached down and scratched her head gently, earning a happy growl from her and causing her to roll over onto her back, waving her legs in the air in an attempt to get him to scratch her stomach. He shook his head as he straightened up, listening to Blacksprite giggle as she poked her head over his arm and stuck her glossa out at the Scrapmetal.

"Looks like you're back on babysitting duty, Starscream." Thundercracker laughed, getting Ransack and Crumplezone to join in.

Redscream rolled back to her feet with a growl, her shoulder cannon humming to life. She let out a loud hiss before she charged at the group, firing off shots. The three mechs screamed and raced off, however, it would take much more than that to shake her. Everyone else laughed as they watched the three mechs and the female Scrapmetal race around the volcano base, dodging laser blasts and snapping jaws.

**Author's note:** And that's that. Well, everyone knows who the cub is now. I'm sure you all knew anyways because of how obvious I am. Like the twist that I threw in with Blacksprite stealing the Cyber Planet Key?


	8. Surprise

Chapter 7 Surprise

Starscream glared at Megatron as the mech snarled orders at the underlings. Blacksprite was prancing around proudly, still impressed with her feat of capturing the Key before the Autobots could. Even though she had received a sound scolding from him for not contacting them sooner, he was happy to have his little bundle of laughs with him. She was supposed to be maturing into an adult by now, but she seemed to be content to continue to act like a youngling. At least now he could protect her from any over zealous suitor.

"Uncle," she mewed as she sat down in front of him, "what's wrong?"

He snorted slightly, brushing his hand across her head and earning a gentle purr from her. "Nothing, Sprite," he replied.

She mewed against before transforming and reaching towards him, wanting to be picked up. He bit back his smile as he scooped her up, cuddling her to his chest as she purred happily at the close contact; for a cat, she was oddly affectionate. He glanced down at her and wondered for the hundredth time that day how they had missed the obvious hints that she was a cat-former; she had a small pair of ears on her helm that twitched with her mood, a very cat-like facial structure, paw-shaped feet, and a glaring cat head in the center of her chest. Her tail was strapped to her back in robot mode, forming some kind of pole weapon when she used it in battle.

"Why didn't Silence tell me about you?" He asked, still upset that she had hid this important information from him.

"She didn't want me to be treated like a pet," she replied, her yellow optics flashing slightly. "You know how you and grandpa act…," she trailed off.

He frowned, not liking that he was being compared to Megatron, but he had to agree to his girlfriend's logic; he probably would have treated her similar to the way he treated Redscream. Of course, since she could talk, she wouldn't be treated quite like a pet, but there was no telling what could have happened at this point. She purred softly up at him, rolling over in his arms and pawing at his chin, almost like she was massaging him.

"Auntie told me to tell you that she's sorry," she purred, "she just didn't want me to be mistreated."

He cradled her for a few more moments, thinking everything over, before Megatron started ordering everyone around again. The idiot didn't know where the next Cyber Planet Key was when it was so blindingly obvious. He growled as he pulled out his replica of the map that they had stolen from Vector Prime which showed where the Keys were before swinging Blacksprite onto his back so he could move his arms freely.

"I believe you have merely missed something, my lord," he stated calmly as he walked over to Megatron.

Megatron rounded on him, his optics flashing dangerously. "Oh really?" He asked, an angry growl heavy in his tone.

"Yes, look here, my Lord," he stated as he held out the copy, "see? You merely overlooked this tiny blip. It isn't as pronounced as the other Keys, so it's power must not be as great as the other Keys."

"Hmm, interesting," Megatron mused as he took the map. "You've done well, Starscream, for once." He turned around and opened a dimension gate to the coordinates shown by the map. "Bring up the rear," he ordered before flying through the gate.

Starscream growled as the others followed the larger mech through the gate. Sideways glanced at him before motioning towards the open gate. "Aren't you going?" He asked.

"You can if you want," Starscream sneered, "but I'm not taking up the rear any longer."

Blacksprite chirped angrily from his back before she bunted his head. "You lied to Grandpa!" She accused.

Starscream chuckled lightly before he opened a warp gate to Earth. "Welcome to the world of adults," he replied before he flew through the gate, "where karma plays a large part in everything that happens."

Sideways chuckled lightly before following, but not before catching a glimpse of white, cream, and silver armor out of the corner of his optic. Then, he was almost run over before he could get a better look by Starscream's pet Scrapmetal as it went screeching after the Seeker. He grumbled as he followed the Scrapmetal, wanting nothing more than to kick it as far as he could.

'**Sending coordinates, Mistress.'**

'_Coordinates received. Keep a close optic on them, Redscream.'_

'**Understood.'**

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Starscream glanced at Blacksprite as she sank into the snow again. She growled angrily as she tried to crawl back up, only to fall through again. She let out a wail of distress, her nose just poking over the top of the snow bank. He rolled his optics as he walked over and pulled her out, giving her a small shake to dislodge the snow that covered her and got into the crevices of her body.

"I hate snow," she grumbled as she was placed back on the ground. "It's cold, wet, and it keeps sinking!"

He chuckled before Redscream scuttled over, growling and hissing as she plowed through the drifts of snow, her shoulder cannon humming as she fried it to melt the snow that piled up too high. Blacksprite giggled as she tried to hop over to the Scrapmetal, only succeeding in sinking into the snow again. Sideways let out an impatient snort, tapping his foot against the ground in annoyance; he didn't like being in the cold and thought it was just rude for the two femmes to be slowing them down.

"We're coming," Blacksprite chirped as she hopped back up, shaking her body clean of the snow.

He snorted as Starscream took over the lead again, plowing through the waist high drifts towards where they had seen an Autobot head for. They were sure that it was hiding something, something like the Cyber Planet Key for Earth. They crested the top of a hill and grinned as the Autobot from earlier opened a hidden door in the side of the other hill across from them.

"Do you want us to attack, Uncle?" Blacksprite asked as she transformed beside him.

He chuckled before he took to the air and fired on the Autobot. Sideways was quick to follow him while Redscream and Blacksprite went on the ground assault. They caught the mech off guard, sending him sideways to avoid getting shot, only to get Blacksprite's tail weapon in the face. He yowled in pain, stumbling away as the young femme flipped over and darted away; he could definitely see that she had been practicing that move for a while.

When the Autobot recovered, he aimed his gun at Blacksprite. "You're not releasing those monsters," he ordered.

"Monsters?" Blacksprite asked as she tilted her head. "Is that why we're here, Uncle?" She called.

The Autobot looked up just in time to avoid getting hit by Starscream as he landed, aiming his side guns at him. "No, but now I'm intrigued," he replied before firing at the Autobot, sending him flying backwards.

"Must…warn…Evac," the Autobot muttered before he transformed and drove off over the snow drifts.

Starscream chuckled as he walked forward, his "niece" purring happily as she followed. "Sideways, I want you to follow that Autobot. See if he leads you to the Key," he ordered before he vanished down the tunnel with Blacksprite and Redscream.

The tunnel was incredibly dark and he had to activate his night-vision just to navigate. The two femmes seemed completely at home in the dark, taking turns to lead the way. He snorted slightly as they entered a cavern, the soft humming of a generator reaching him from the center of the room. He walked over to the generator, pressing a button and watched as the lights around the cavern flared to life, illuminating hundreds of hibernation pods.

"Whoa," Blacksprite chirped as she glanced around, the ears on her helm twitching. "Look at 'em all."

Redscream nodded in agreement, turning around and growling lightly before skittering up to one of the pods and sniffed it. She turned around and tapped her Decepticon insignia with her front leg, signifying that the Transformers within were Decepticons. Starscream grinned as he examined the generator again, looking for the button that would turn it off.

"Hey, Uncle, why are they sleeping?" Blacksprite asked as she hopped up to get a closer look at one of the pods.

"I'm guessing that Autobot had a hand to play in this," he replied before he heard movement up above. He grinned before he found the button that turned the machine off and pressed it.

Blacksprite yelped in surprise as the lid let out a hiss and opened up, revealing the mech inside. She stood there for another moment before she darted over to him and hid behind him, peeking out as the other lids opened. He laughed coldly as he watched the mechs within awaken, grunts and groans leaving them before black holoforms engulfed them, forming monsters from human stories.

"Whoa…check it out," Blacksprite whispered as she watched the hundreds of forms turn to face them.

"My fellow Decepticons," Starscream shouted, gaining their attention, "it is a pleasure to say that I have freed you from your imprisonment." They let out low murmurs, leaning forward to listen. "I'm sure you know that you were imprisoned by Autobots." They all nodded and Starscream grinned, knowing that he had them on his side. "I am the leader of the Decepticons, and I expect you to follow me to victory against the Autobots."

The Decepticons all nodded, their holographic expressions showing their lust for the Autobots' energon. Blacksprite let out a chirp before her ears flicked up and she spun around hissing at the entrance to the cavern. He glanced over and grinned as Optimus Prime, Landmine, and Leobreaker raced in, their optics widening in shock as they took in the scene.

"Hiya, Autobots," Blacksprite hissed as she took on a fighting stance.

He placed his hand on her head and chuckled. "Not you, Sprite," he stated before he turned to the Autobots. "Care to meet some more Decepticons?" He asked as he motioned to the hoard behind him.

"What are they?" Landmine demanded.

"Ancient Decepticons imprisoned by Autobots," Starscream replied with his familiar grin. "Decepticons, attack!" He shouted.

The hoard roared before they leapt at the three Autobots, dropping their holographic forms. Starscream picked her up quickly, Redscream latching onto his back as he took off towards the top of the cavern. The Decepticons quickly followed, firing down at the Autobots and causing the roof of the cavern to fall in on them. Blacksprite laughed gently as she snuggled closer to her uncle watching as the other formed a huge mass against the grey sky.

"There's so many of them, Uncle," she murmured in amazement.

"Yes, and with them we will locate the Autobots' base of operations and the Earth Cyber Planet Key," he chuckled darkly as he stroked her helm.

She purred happily before she noticed a streak of white above the masses. Her yellow optics sparkled in delight as she tried to contact the figure. _'Auntie!'_

'_Hello, my little one,'_ came the reply. _'How is everything going?'_

'_Perfect! Uncle's got a whole bunch of help! Just look at them all!'_ Blacksprite squealed in delight.

'_I see them all, little one,'_ she replied. _'I'll meet up with you all later; I got to set up a way for Starscream to locate the Autobots.'_

'_Ok, see you soon, Auntie!'_ She chirped before she felt her aunt's presence in her mind leave.

She snuggled against Starscream and purred softly before her uncle kissed her helm gently. "Get some sleep, little one," he whispered, "I'll wake you when we are ready to set up our own base."

She mewed softly before he flew up to one of the huge blimps that the Decepticons formed and landed. She transformed into her panther mode before he placed her down to sleep. She curled up, tucking her head into her hind legs, and curling her tail around her. She inhaled deeply before slipping into recharge, feeling Redscream resting her head on her back as she lay down to guard her.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Wake up, Blacksprite," Starscream's voice murmured as she felt her shoulder shaking.

"Uh?" She asked as she onlined her optics. She glanced around at the volcanic walls and sat up in surprise. "Where are we?"

"Our new base," he replied as he stroked her head. "I would have woken you up sooner, but I was a little busy settling everyone down."

She sat up nervously and noted where that she was lying in a closed off section of the volcano. She mewed as she snuggled closer to Starscream's leg, glancing around as a few of the other Decepticons' shadows passed by the wall that hid them from view. He scratched her ear gently before scooping her up, holding her securely to his chest before walking out from behind the wall through a door. She flipped herself over and watched as they walked through a large cavern in the center of the volcano.

She gasped in shock as she watched the magma burst up beside them, causing a few of the other Decepticons to jump slightly in shock, pulling their guns out in preparation for a fight. She giggled slightly before she hopped down and trotted beside Starscream, scanning the area around her and getting all the information she needed to send to her aunt. Starscream led the way towards the platform that had been carved into the ground and, she saw with surprise, the Omega Lock and two Cyber Planet Keys.

"You got it?" She asked as she bounced over, looking at the red and green keys in awe.

"You sound surprised," Sideways snorted.

"Well yeah! The Autobots had this thing heavily guarded!" She replied as she spun around and tilted her head before leaping up and down. "Uncle Starscream's the greatest Decepticon ever!"

Starscream chuckled before he walked over and patted her head. "You've got that right," he agreed.

She purred as she leant into his hand before her ears flicked up and she growled. The "fur" on her back stood up straight and she started hissing and spitting, pacing back and forth with her optics focused solely on a femme that had just entered the cavern. Starscream looked up and chuckled.

"Looks like she doesn't like Thunderblast," he stated.

"Merrow!" She hissed as she tried to make herself look bigger.

He chuckled as he patted her head again, standing up to his full height and addressing his troops. She blocked out the speech, focusing instead on the femme that he had called Thunderblast. She didn't like her armor, didn't like the way she appeared to be flaunting herself, and she didn't like the way her optics were roaming over Starscream's body; he was taken by Whitesilence, not this little…floozy!

She snorted before she watched them all run out of the room. "Huh?" She asked, tipping her head to the side.

"We have Autobots attacking us," Starscream replied before he turned towards the Omega Lock. "Why don't you go with them and show the Autobots how tough you are?"

Her ears flattened against her head as she got the hidden message in the question; get lost. "Ok," she replied, trying to sound upbeat and happy. "Come on Red; let's go kick some Autobot can!" She growled to the Scrapmetal before taking off down the hallway, quickly followed by Redscream.

Starscream glanced after her, smiling slightly as he felt a wave of pride sweep through him; his little girl was growing up fast. He nodded to himself before he turned back to the Omega Lock, focusing solely on unlocking its secrets and obtaining the ultimate power. However, before he could start searching farther, a hand trailed over his wings, causing him to shudder and stand up straight. He snarled before he spun to punch whoever had dared to touch his wings, and his fist was caught in a delicate white hand. He blinked in shock before he followed the hand up to the shoulder then onto the other's face.

His jaw hit the ground as he stared into Whitesilence's face. She grinned before she grabbed the back of his head and slammed her mouth over top of his, taking advantage of his open mouth. _"Miss me?"_ She purred as she released his hand to wrap her other arms around his neck.

He snapped out of his surprise and crushed her to his chest, finally returning her kisses almost feverishly. _**'More than you can imagine,'**_ he replied as their kissing deepened.

"_Oh, I bet I could guess,"_ she purred in reply as her hand trailed out over his wings again. _"I've missed you just as much."_

He grinned as he pulled back, cupping her cheek in one hand while his other hand was pressed against the small of her back. "You defied your father," he chuckled.

She grinned, flashing her fangs at him. _"I learnt from the best,"_ she cooed.

He laughed before he pulled her into another kiss, ignoring the pulsating Omega Lock behind him for a moment. When it let out a loud hum, however, he pulled away and turned back to it, Whitesilence wrapping her arms around his chest and kissing his neck. He chuckled as he reached back to touch her face, his optics wandering down her face to her lips. He leant down and kissed her as she tipped her head up, catching onto what he wanted without even needing to read his mind.

He stopped as the Omega Lock began to glow, turning his attention to it again with a dark smile. "The ultimate power," he chuckled as he reached out and touched the Lock.

Whitesilence nodded slowly before she backed away, letting him bathe in the yellow aura. He laughed as he felt his spark pulse in time with the pulsing of the Omega Lock then he began to absorb its power. He felt his circuits screaming in shock as the power settled into his frame. Then, he began to grow.


	9. Dismay

Chapter 8 Dismay

Starscream cackled as he continued to grow. Power was racing through him and he knew that no one could stand in his way. A pinprick of annoyance flooded his mind and he glanced down at Whitesilence automatically. She was frowning, her arms folded across her chest, and leaning heavily on her left leg, causing her hip to lift up in an almost seductive manner.

"What?" he asked as he tilted his head.

'_Thanks for making me feel like a sparkling again, tall, dark, and deadly,'_ she snorted.

He chuckled before he finally stopped growing. He stretched his arms out before focusing his power to shoot him into the sky. He burst out of the volcano in a shower of rocks and magma, earning surprised shouts from the Autobots and Decepticons fighting on the beach. He sneered down at them, internally amused by their horrified expressions.

'_Sit and stay?'_ Whitesilence asked in a bored tone.

'_**If anyone tries to get the Keys and the Omega Lock, kill them,'**_ he ordered.

'_Of course, Commander,'_ she replied with a soft purr.

'_**Supreme Commander,'**_ he pushed.

'_Don't push your luck,'_ she replied sternly.

'_**Aww,'**_ he whined playfully before landing on the ground. "Say hello to the new supreme ruler of the cosmos!" he laughed.

Whitesilence sighed as she rolled her head on her neck and lightly put pressure on her right leg. She winced as pain flared up her leg straight to her cranial unit; damn Prime to the darkest reaches of the Pit. She pulled another pained expression as she bent down to gauge the size of the wound behind her knee. Energon trickled down her leg, not as profoundly anymore, but it needed to be stopped before she bled too much and passed out. She glanced around before sighing and limping over to the magma pool beside the Omega Lock's pedestal. She braced herself before sitting down and lowering her injured leg into the magma. She shuddered in pain as the intense heat seemed to melt her armor and circuits, but she knew it just hurt and that her mind was merely making the assumption that it was heavily injured. She sat there for another minute, shaking and silently screaming, to make sure the cauterization was finished.

'_Ow,'_ she whimpered to herself as she pulled her leg out and let it cool down.

She heard voices not far away and shakily hauled herself back to her feet. She walked back to stand in front of the Omega Lock, waiting for the intruders to come. She could feel the ground quaking before she spotted an ancient spaceship flying down the mouth of the volcano. She growled as she took aim with her back-mounted cannons at the ship and fired. They hit dead on, and she heard a grunt before the ship crashed into the ground and transformed. She smirked before walking over and giving the ship a good kick in the side.

"Coward," the old mech coughed at her feet. "Attacking from the shadows. And when I thought you could sink no lower, Megatron."

'_One slight problem with that assumption,'_ she laughed darkly as she bent down and wrenched the old mech's head up to look her in the optics, _'I'm not Megatron.'_

The mech's optics widened in surprise and slight fear. "What?" he asked in shock. "Who are you?"

'_My designation is Whitesilence,'_ she replied before she tilted his head to the side to expose his major fuel lines. _'Remember it, because it is the last name you will ever learn,'_ she hissed before she went for his throat.

"I don't think so, lady!" a voice shouted before she was knocked aside.

She snarled as she rolled back to her feet, mentally summoning her Cyber Planet Key. She felt it enter her back and the two attachments on her back snapped off and fused together to form her sword. The chain materialized after she caught it and she turned to face her opponent.

'_Wingsabre,'_ she half purred as she shouldered her blade, _'how delightful to see you again.'_

"Shoulda known you'd turn up where the side lines of a battle are," the silver mech snorted.

She gave him a fanged grin before shaking her head. _'Aw, you didn't miss me? Now you've hurt my feelings,'_ she cooed before bringing her blade down.

"You don't have feelings!" Wingsabre shouted before calling his blade out.

'_Starscream,'_ she called evenly as she readied herself for a fight, _'I'm going to need back-up.'_

'_**I'll send someone,'**_ he replied hastily, almost like he was trying to focus on something else.

She smirked as she easily parried Wingsabre's attack. The silver mech kept attacking, trying to give the old mech enough time to reach the Omega Lock. She kicked the silver mech aside before turning on the old mech in time to see the mech get shot at. A speedboat came racing over the magma towards them, a huge four barrel gun sitting in the middle of its deck.

"Someone call for back up?" a female voice called out.

Whitesilence frowned at the voice; Starscream had sent this to help her? Equality to the Pit if her voice sounded like that! _'I was expecting someone a little more…sophisticated,'_ she replied before she brought her blade up to block Wingsabre's futile attack.

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" the boat demanded before she transformed.

She took one look at the femme and snarled. _'You sent me __**THAT**__ as help?!'_ she snarled in disgust.

'_**Thunderblast is capable of fighting,'**_ Starscream growled in reply. _**'Just work with her.'**_

She growled before flaring at the femme. _'Protect the Lock, you useless glitch!'_ she ordered.

"Who says I'm taking orders from you?" Thunderblast sneered.

'_If you don't listen I'll rip that pretty little head of yours off and give it to my Scrapmetal as a chew toy!'_ she snarled before baring her fangs in rage.

"Fine, fine, geez what a grouch," the other femme whined before she started firing at the other mech again.

'_Useless,'_ she grumbled darkly as she fought with Wingsabre. _'Absolutely useless.'_

"Just can't find good help anymore can yah, Silence?" Wingsabre teased.

'_Well now, this coming from the mech that shot his own commander,'_ she crooned as they parried each other's attacks.

"Heard about that, huh?" he asked.

'_No,'_ she replied before she pulled him into a headlock, _'your mind told me the last time we met.'_

Wingsabre thrashed around in her grip, trying to break free even though he knew it was pointless. She had a steel-trap grip that she had learned from her father and knew just how to use it. "Wingsabre, hand on!" the old mech shouted.

She let out a mental howl of agony as a sword stabbed through the back of her shoulder. Her grip slackened enough for Wingsabre to escape. "Later, babe," he called as both mechs took off.

She clutched her shoulder tightly, gritting her dental bands together, before she spun around and advanced on the whining femme. _'Why didn't you defend the Omega Lock?!'_ she snarled as she grabbed the femme by the top of her chest plate and lifted her up.

"I was shot into the lava," she whined. "Now my armor's all charred.

She snarled again before she pitched Thunderblast into the lava again. She went to the edge, scooped some of the molten rock up, and slammed it onto her injured shoulder. She hissed at the pain, but did not remove her hand or the molten rock until she was sure the wound was shut. Thunderblast was complaining and shouting at her for the treatment she had received, but she ignored her.

'_Redscream, Blacksprite, come here,'_ she ordered over her mind link with them.

'_Coming Auntie!'_ Blacksprite replied.

'_**Right away, Mistress,'**_ Redscream growled.

She glanced at the still complaining femme before disengaging her Cyber Planet Key. _'The Autobots took the Lock, Starscream,'_ she stated. _'My sincerest apologies.'_

'_**Never mind, take Thunderblast and follow Megatron; he's heading for Cybertron after the Lock,'**_ he growled.

'_Understood,'_ she replied before she felt Blacksprite and Redscream bump against her legs. _'New orders; we're following Megatron and his Decepticons to Cybertron.'_

"But why us?" Thunderblast whined.

"Because Uncle Starscream ordered us to," Blacksprite mewed.

'_Correct,'_ Whitesilence replied before transforming into her jet-mode. _'Now move out,'_ she ordered after Redscream and Blacksprite had hopped on her back.

She blasted out of the volcano before Thunderblast could complain more. She looked over at Starscream, mentally smirking at him severely thrashing the Autobots, before flying towards the open space bridge. Her backpackers leapt off when they got close enough and waited for the boat-former to catch up with them since she had to take the land route. She turned up a moment later, complaining about something or other, before they went through the open space bridge.

"Someone's following us," a male voice commented as they reached the end of the space bridge.

"What?" Megatron's voice demanded.

Whitesilence fell back behind Thunderblast as the boat exited the space bridge. "A boat," the voice replied.

"Wait, don't shoot!" Thunderblast squeaked.

"Give me one good reason," Megatron demanded.

"I'm on your side," she replied, dragging everyone's attention away from the space bridge.

She stepped out while Thunderblast was giving her speech. None of the others noticed her; they were focused solely on the floating femme in front of Megatron. She felt fury boil in her lines as she watched the other femme turn from side to side before reaching out and touching his shoulder.

"Someone like you," she giggled.

'_You fragging slut!'_ she screeched in rage, causing everyone to grab their helms in pain. She stormed over and grabbed the other femme by her throat, slamming her down onto the path of the space bridge. _'I leave you alone for one slagging minute and you go and hit on the first mech that you see!'_ she snarled, fangs bared as she slammed her foot down on the other's chest.

She snarled at the now hysterical femme before Megatron chuckled behind her. "As aggressive as always, my dear," he stated before his hand fell on her shoulder. "But this is not necessary," he added in a hardened tone.

'_I will not stand for such blatted disregard of respect for your superiority,'_ she growled, letting a barely audible hiss pass through her fangs.

He chuckled again before gently pulling her off. "I will handle the punishment," he replied as Thunderblast staggered to her feet.

"Who's she?" the little red mech asked.

She squared her shoulder before giving him a bored look. _'I am Whitesilence, head general of the Decepticon army,'_ she stated calmly.

The new mechs that she didn't recognize all jumped slightly. "She's…telepathic," a large red mech stated.

"And powerful," Blacksprite purred as she leapt over. "She's the most powerful femme in the entire Universe."

Whitesilence shook her head as she knelt down to scratch the young femme's helm. The large mech, whom Blacksprite called Scourge, raised an optic ridge before smiling slightly. She gave him a withering look before straightening up; she didn't like the path his thoughts had taken.

"Now, Thunderblast," Megatron said in a sickly sweet voice, "as long as you are loyal, you can remain with my army. But don't think you'll get off easy just because you're cute."

"Yes!" Thunderblast squealed. "You won't regret this," she added before she flew past him.

Whitesilence turned towards her father, her face twisted in horror. _'Please tell me you were not just flirting with her,'_ she begged.

Megatron gave her an even look before chuckling. "Is there a problem?" he asked.

'_She's a slut! There is no way possible that I would __**ever**__ accept her as a creator!'_ she snarled, making sure that she sent the message only to Megatron.

"Who said it would go that far?" he chuckled before he turned around.

'_It had better not,'_ he growled as she followed him, elbowing Thundercracker aside before transforming into her car alt. mode.

She revved her engine once before following Megatron down the bridge path. Why didn't they just open a warp gate to Cybertron? This was ridiculous. She could hear Redscream scrambling to keep up with them and a loud yelp of surprise as Blacksprite latched onto one of the others for a ride. She snorted bitterly until she picked up worried mind waves and smirked; Autobots.

'_Sir, Autobots detected about 25 miles ahead,'_ she stated.

"You can sense that far?" Thundercracker asked in shock.

'_The extent of my range is 30 miles,'_ she replied evenly. _'And you're mind is disturbing me; stop thinking about Thunderblast's aft.'_

The others snickered as Thundercracker let out a shout of disbelief. "I am not!"

She chuckled before Megatron gave the order to transform and prepare to fire. They all transformed and Whitesilence smirked when she saw Override's surprised face. She bared her fangs before lowering herself down to Redscream as the Scrapmetal growled happily.

'_Fetch,'_ she laughed, pointing at the Omega Lock in Override's hands.

Redscream snarled happily before she spun around and charged. Override, Leobreaker, and Evac all yelped in surprise before they tried shooting at Redscream, only for the lithe little femme to dart out of the way at the last second and fire her own cannon. They darted aside, leaving enough of a gap between them for the red Scrapmetal to tackle Override and tear into her in an attempt to get the Lock. Override tried to beat her off, but the Scrapmetal got what she wanted and headed back to Whitesilence.

'_Good femme,'_ she cooed gently as she pet her pet's helm. Redscream purred happily as she dropped the Lock into her hand. She stood up before glancing at Megatron. _'How about I hang onto this since I seem to be the fastest one here…and know when to haul my aft out of here.'_

He glanced at her, blue optics hard as he tried to see if she was bluffing about it, before he nodded. "Very well," he replied before he turned back to the Autobots. "Care to surrender?"

Leobreaker snarled. "We stand a better chance on Cybertron; come on!" he shouted before they all turned and jumped into the broken fabrics of the cosmos.

"Well…that was brilliant," Blacksprite commented. "Hope they get lost."

"It's a clear shot from here to Cybertron," Thundercracker snapped. "No way they can get lost."

Whitesilence spun on him and had her hand around his throat in a split second. _'Care to correct that remark?'_ she asked coldly. _'Perhaps you didn't notice, Thundercracker, but the space between here and Cybertron is shifted and mashed, much like your CPU.'_

Thundercracker thrashed around for a moment, snarling insults at her until Megatron finally stepped in. He simply had to grab her wrist before she reluctantly allowed the blue Seeker to fall back onto the "ground". He glared up at her, but she ignored him as she turned to look back at the chopped up section of the road. She frowned slightly before Megatron stepped up beside her. He glanced at her before growling and a huge purple aura encased him.

'_Show off,'_ she stated in a bored tone before she focused her power into a pure white aura around her.

She heard a chuckle before Scourge stepped forward, surrounded by a dark green aura. "I should not be surprised that the mighty Megatron's own sparkling is so powerful," he stated calmly.

She bared her fangs at him before tossing her head back. _'Slag off, I'm taken,'_ she spat at him.

"Yeah," Blacksprite mewed as she leapt over. "Uncle won't be happy that you're making moves on her."

"Wait…didn't she call Starscream that?" the little red mech, Ransack, Redscream mentioned as she licked her front leg, asked.

"Yeah, what's your point?" Blacksprite asked with a tilt of her head.

"Does that make Starscream her boyfriend?" Ransack asked.

She smirked before she followed Megatron into the mashed up space. _'You make that sound like a bad thing, little one,'_ she replied evenly.

"HEY! WHO ARE YOU CALLING LITTLE?!" he shouted after her.

She had to put all her focus on following Megatron through the mess. She felt her armor itching all over and it was taking everything she had not to obey the internal command to reach over and scratch her irritated armor; one moment of distraction and she would be lost forever in this mess. Megatron barely glanced back at her before he weaved around some of the obstacles blocking their way.

'**Do you understand now why I told you to stay on Cybertron?'** he demanded.

'_Your reasoning is beyond me,'_ she replied as she caught up to him and flew beside him. _'But please, enlighten me.'_

He growled slightly before they both dodged at the same time around another obstruction. **'I can sense your discomfort; that is the start of serious injury,'** he replied.

'_I'm a soldier, just like every other mech in the army,'_ she replied evenly as she flew back to his side.

'**No, you are not; you are far more important than any of the other mechs,'** he growled before he darted to the side to avoid a large asteroid, brushing his hand gently over her shoulder at the same time.

'_Why? Because you are my creator?'_ she asked darkly.

'**I need a successor, Whitesilence,'** he replied as he went back to her side, his optics focused in front of him. **'And you are my only creation and have the throne in your birthright.'**

'_And if I chose to be Starscream's mate?'_ she asked. _'Would you revoke that right?'_

'**I would rather that you found a better mech for a mate,'** he replied.

'_Like Scourge?'_ she hissed angrily. _'I will never mate with a mech like him.'_

'**He would make a finer mate than Starscream,'** he stated coldly.

'_You know nothing about Starscream; don't you dare compare him to that gutter-minded dragon!'_ she snarled in reply, turning her head away to bare her fangs at him.

He reached out and grabbed her, yanking her close to him as another asteroid flew by. His arm stayed locked around her stomach for a good minute, both of them waiting patiently for Scourge to catch up. They both hovered there, lifting an optic ridge in surprise when Thunderblast flew up beside Scourge. Her gaze froze on them pressed front to back before her optics narrowed angrily. Whitesilence rolled her optics before she leant back and gave Megatron's jaw a small kiss.

'_I owe you one,'_ she stated before pulling away.

Thunderblast glared at her while Megatron shook his head and continued leading them. "You have a lot of nerve," she snapped at her.

'_What? I can't give my creator a thank-you kiss for saving my aft?'_ she asked in annoyance before following him.

"Creator?" the other femme asked in shock. "He's your creator?!"

'_And the glitch just catches on; I thought the horns and spikes would give it all away,'_ she sighed in annoyance.

She saw the femme's mind go into a confused state, unable to put the two of them together in such a manner. How anyone could not see the resemblance was beyond her; she was a female version of him. She snorted before continuing on, easily weaving past the slower moving asteroids to keep up with Megatron. He glanced at her as she flew up beside him, a low growl of disproval leaving him.

'_Oh come on, like it's going to hurt anyone knowing that you're my creator,'_ she sighed. _'The entire army knows.'_

'**Perhaps I did not want her to know about it,'** he replied angrily.

She stopped and gapped at him. _'You...you honestly mean…you…,'_ she gasped before she lost control of herself. _'YOU ARE HONESTLY CONSIDERING HER AS A MATE?!'_

She sensed Scourge and Thunderblast pause, caught in her telepathic range. Megatron stopped and turned to face her. "Whitesilence," he warned.

'_Answer my question,'_ she snarled as she clenched her fists. _'Are you considering her as a mate?'_

"That is none of your concern," he replied.

She glared at him for a moment before straightening up and hovering closer to him and touching his helm. He tried to jerk away from her but she latched onto his shoulder and held him there as she dug through the files in his CPU. He snarled at her, making it quite clear that she did not have permission to shift through his thoughts, but she ignored him as she found what she was looking for. She read through his feelings for Thunderblast before she wound up and punched Megatron across the face.

'_I can't believe you!'_ she snarled as she backed away, her optics filling with tears. _'The femme you choose as a potential mate is a slut!'_

"Whitesilence," he growled, his ice cold optics on her, "you are stepping beyond your boundaries."

She bared her fangs before she spun around. _'I should have stayed with Starscream,'_ she spat before she transformed and headed for Cybertron. _'Then maybe I could be spared of knowing that you want that miserable little excuse for a fighter!'_

"Whitesilence!" Megatron roared after her, but she ignored him as she gunned her engines and headed for Cybertron.

She flew faster than she thought she could through the horribly mashed up space towards her home. She knew that Blacksprite had opened a warp gate there already and was waiting, but right now she didn't care. She just wanted to put as much distance between her and her father as she could. Of all the femmes that she had encountered, Thunderblast was the worst yet; what did her father see in her? Oh, that's right; a huge chassis and a nice aft. Mechs, you just couldn't trust them. She saw the large metal planet coming up fast and transformed, flying down into the atmosphere before pulling up to slam her feet down into one of the still standing buildings.

She stood up slowly, ignoring anything else that was happening and just trying to calm her angered circuits. She watched as Megatron, Scourge and Thunderblast landed not far away, but she crouched down and slid into the shadows, her optics glaring daggers into her creator and the other femme's head. She just wanted to kill that femme now, but she had to wait for a more perfect time. She watched in amusement as her creator easily repelled the three Autobots that attacked him before Optimus Prime turned up.

The fight didn't last long before Megatron vanished into the fire dimension to hide from Optimus. She shook her head before starting to count the minutes until he came back out after Optimus went after him. She counted off ten minutes before the Autobot leader came back out, shouting at the old mech, Vector Prime, to open a warp gate across the fire dimension one. Her optics opened in horror as she realized what he was going to do.

She watched in disbelief as the entrance to the fire dimension began to entangle itself with the odd green one that the old mech had created. _'No,'_ she whispered before she watched it vanish. _'No!'_

She almost leapt off the building to attack the Autobots in a blind rage before she saw the seams of the warp gate slide back into existence. She watched as the opening opened wider, electric bars appearing between the two sides and revealing Megatron as he ripped the dimension open. She grinned before she realized something with a sickening thud; he would never be able to escape if he had to hold the gate open.

She took off towards the gate as Scourge and Thunderblast rushed past. _'Cowards,'_ she snarled at the same time Megatron did.

She hovered in front of Megatron for a moment before setting her hands on the side of the gate and began to push the sides apart, trying to give her creator a chance to escape. He glared at her before growling. "Get out of here," he ordered.

'_Not without you,'_ she replied as she strained to keep the gate open.

"That is an order," he snapped as his arms began to shake.

'_I guess that I don't listen, now do I?'_ she replied as she felt her arms shaking from the strain.

He was silent for a moment before his struck his foot into her chest, sending her flipping end over end away from him. She growled before she looked up to watch his armor beginning to shatter. He opened his mouth in a roar of pain before his entire body shattered into dust and the warp gate closed forever. Her optics widened, staring at the place he had been a moment before, before optical fluid fell down her face. She tipped her head back and for once in her life, a fully audible scream of pain raced past her lips, filling the air of Cybertron with the noise. The Autobots on the surface of the planet stared at her in shock as they swear they heard the sound of something fragile shattering into a million pieces before her white body fell back towards Cybertron, only to be caught by Scourge and carried away.

She curled against the red dragon's chest, sniffling slightly. _'He's gone,'_ she whispered as she clutched her chest, feeling all alone for the first time in her life. _'He's dead,'_ she whimpered before she felt one word form in her throat and make it's way past her blockage. "Father," she mewed into the vastness of space, the nothingness devouring the word as quickly as it had left her, almost as if she had never uttered it.

She broke down into tears against the dragon-former's chest, sensing his distress over her reaction, but she didn't care; her father was dead and it was because she hadn't been able to save him. She sobbed silently even after Scourge had dropped her onto an asteroid; it was all her fault. She sensed other land around her, sensing their hesitation about coming closer. A soft growl sounded before Redscream's head nuzzled under her arm.

'_**Mistress?'**_ she asked softly

'_He's gone, Red…he's gone,'_ she sobbed as she hugged her pet close to her chest.

'_**Mistress,'**_ Redscream whimpered softly, understanding immediately and licking her cheek gently.

She lay there for a long time, holding her pet close to her as she sobbed painfully over the loss of her father. Blacksprite curled up against her stomach, mewing gently and trying to comfort her as the others whispered venomously about her display of weakness. She glared around her tears before she stood up and faced the mechs, barring her fangs at them. Thundercracker sneered something that she didn't catch, but the others snickered, and she grinned predatorily before she lunged for his throat.


	10. Return

Chapter 9 Return

Thundercracker screamed in terror before he was tackled to the ground. Whitesilence snarled, blue optics blazing in fury as she tried to reach his throat around his flailing arms. She bared her fangs at the thrashing mech before she brought her fist back, planning to slam it into the other's face to make him stay still. Before it could begin its downward plunge, another hand grabbed her first, holding it back from the damage she wanted to inflict. She turned to glare over her shoulder at the mech that had dared to interfere.

Scourge's green optics stared lazily down at her. "Cease your actions, Whitesilence," he ordered.

She glared at him before rising, towering over the red mech. She bared her fangs to him, letting him know that she was not impressed by his interference, but stood down as he had requested. He nodded before releasing her hand, soon enough to avoid getting bitten by Redscream as she scuttled over to stand by her mistress. Blacksprite leapt over as well, rubbing against Whitesilence's leg to show her affection, missing Scourge's sneer .

"So, now what?" Ransacked asked.

"We need a new leader," Blacksprite mewed.

"I'll lead," Thundercracker shouted before jumping up, waving his gun around.

"You?" Ransack snorted. "You couldn't lead a parade!"

"What was that, small fry?" Thundercracker demanded.

'_Truth hurts, doesn't it?'_ Whitesilence sneered.

"You're one to talk!" Thundercracker shouted at her before Ransack and Crumplezone tackled him.

All three of them rolled around on the ground, snarling and shouting insults. Blacksprite giggled at them, her tail waving back and forth in excitement. Redscream growled at their antics, voicing her disgust to Whitesilence, who merely stared on in boredom, unimpressed. Scourge brought it upon himself to end the fight by breathing fire on the combatants, sending them scurrying for cover.

"None of you are worthy of leading," he snapped.

"Oh, and you are?" Thundercracker demanded, waving his gun around again.

"I know how to settle this," Ransack announced. "Battle royal!"

'_He's not serious?'_ Whitesilence asked, shaking her head in disbelief.

"Come on mechs," Ransack hissed to the other two, "together we can take out this overgrown lizard."

'_My credits are on Scourge,'_ Whitesilence broadcasted.

Scourge chuckled softly, his mind taking the compliment the wrong way and she growled at him. For someone who clearly did not know her, he certainly thought that he could just earn his right to take her for a mate just by being Megatron's most powerful soldier. It was rather infuriating to say the least, but the mech was harmless, thankfully. Thundercracker, Crumplezone, and Ransack leapt forward at the same time, hoping to catch him off guard. He caught them easily, throwing them back with a roar before breathing fire on them. Thunderblast finally came out from behind the rock she was hiding behind the whole time and sighed.

"I'm starting to think that I made a mistake leaving Starscream," she commented as a huge Cybertronian ship flew by overhead.

'_You're mistake, playbot, was coming out of your capsule,'_ Whitesilence replied darkly, giving the other femme a bored look.

"Hey!" she screamed, spinning around to glare at her. "You want to go?!"

Whitesilence chuckled before facing her and crossing her arms. _'You realize 'top general' means 'third in command', right?'_ she asked.

"Yeah, what's your point?" Thunderblast asked.

She smirked before lifting her gun onto her shoulders, optics blazing. _'I did not get to that position by being a weakling.'_

Thunderblast took a step back, narrowing her optics in through before pointing. "Then why are you fighting against Scourge?" she demanded.

Redscream growled as the mechs behind her shouted in pain. _'A waste of my time,'_ she replied evenly.

The other femme frowned before turning and walking away. Whitesilence turned back to the mechs and shook her head in disgust at the juvenile display. Scourge had all three of the upstarts pinned, making a show of stepping on them, the two extra dragon heads snickering with him. He glanced at her, almost as if he was expecting her to attack him. She shook her head before touching her first two fingers to her helm in a mock salute.

She smirked before spinning around and shooting Thunderblast's gun out of her hand. The femme squeaked in surprise, her attempt at a sneak attack torn apart by the fact that she had forgotten that Whitesilence was telepathic. She heard Blacksprite gasp beside her and then she heard the sound of charging feet. It did not take her long to put two and two together; Scourge was attacking her from behind. She summoned her Cyberplant Key, grabbing her swords as it fell, and whipped around to hit Scourge across the face.

Scourge was sent sprawling into the dirt, groaning as his legs flopped onto each other. He growled weakly, turning to glare at her as he got slowly back to his feet. He roared at her, but she didn't budge or twitch, not finding the roar any more impressive than Thundercracker's arm mounted gun. She found his confused thoughts amusing, interested by the fact that no one had ever still stood so defiantly after he roared at them, aside from Megatron and Starscream of course.

"You are braver than I gave you credit for," he commented with a grin.

'_Bravery had nothing to do with my lack of response,'_ she replied simply.

"Either way," he chuckled, "I underestimated you."

She nodded before bracing herself for an attack, knowing that he was going to charge again. Scourge charged at her before transforming, lifting his battleaxe up to strike her. She blocked his attack with her sword, grimacing as she tried to keep it from getting at her shoulder. He smirked up at her, impressed that she was able to resist when Optimus could not. She growled at him before sweeping his legs out from under him and watching as he fell to the ground. He hit the ground with a grunt, rolling away in anticipation of another attack. He glanced at her in confusion as she stood there staring after him, her stance loose.

"You do not fight?" he asked in confusion.

'_I do not see the point of your attack,'_ she replied. _'I did not challenge your authority after your, ahem, 'victory'.'_

"It would be natural for you to want to lead," he replied, tilting his head. "You…accept my leadership?"

'_If you turn out to be improper to lead, I'll kill you,'_ she replied before setting her sword back in its place.

"So you will follow all of my orders?" he asked, a mischievous grin.

'_Only on the battlefield,'_ she replied bitterly, optics flashing in outrage. _'Anywhere else you are what you are now.'_

"And what would that be?" Scourge asked.

"A slagheap," Blacksprite purred before bounding over and rubbing against Whitesilence's leg.

Scourge glared at her before shaking his head in disgust as the white femme knelt down to hug the panther cub's neck. Blacksprite purred softly as she rubbed against her "aunt" before smirking at Redscream. The Scrapmetal was sitting exactly where she had bed told to, quivering on the spot with the urge to race over, but obedience told her not to move. Whitesilence tapped her leg, calling her pet over, and she obediently leapt over with a squeal, tucking herself into her arms.

'_My vicious Scrapmetal reduced to a lap dog,'_ she teased.

Redscream barely seemed to be fazed, purring and snuggling into Whitesilence's body. Scourge snorted before kicking the other three Decepticons back to their feet, ordering them to attack the Autobots. Whitesilence placed Redscream on the ground, motioning to a suddenly excited Blacksprite to calm down. Scourge threw the mechs onto a nearby asteroid, propelling them towards Cybertron.

"Come on, Red!" Blacksprite mewed before leaping onto another asteroid. "To Cybertron!"

'**She will grow out of this, right?'** Redscream hissed before scuttling after the young femme.

Whitesilence chuckled before following in jet mode. They headed for Cybertron, the entire trip with the complaining of the beaten mechs. Thunderblast followed at a distance, whining about the situation.

"Whoa!" Blacksprite mewed, leaping to her feet. "Is that Cybertron?!"

Whitesilence was about to ask what she was talking about when a new mind entered her peripheral senses. It immediately commanded her attention, sending her into a downward spiral in shock. Her engines cut out, letting her hover in the middle of space, her mind being engulfed by the powerful one of the new mech. She tried to get the mind away from her, but it would not release her.

**Daughter of Megatron.**

'_Release me!'_

**How many of my children have you killed?**

'_Who are you?'_

**Do you regret what you are?**

'_A Decepticon?'_

**Yes. Are you proud of what you are?**

'_Yes, I am.'_

**Why?**

'_Because the Decepticons are the sole reason that I exist; my mother wanted me dead.'_

**You were created from a forced bonding.**

'_It should not have mattered! She was my mother!'_

**Your father….**

'_Cared for me better than the Autobots ever could have,'_ she snapped bitterly. _'The Autobots kidnapped Jetfire and CPU-washed him!'_

**Are you so sure?**

'_Jetfire is Starscream's baby brother,'_ she replied. _'He told me that Jetfire is different now.'_

**Why do you hate the Autobots so much? The Decepticons were the ones who harmed you.**

'_Silverdart is a minor problem now and I hate them because they hate me.'_

**You know this for a fact?**

'_I'm telepathic; of course I know.'_

The new presence chuckled before it backed away slowly. She felt it gently calling her towards Cybertron the same way a parent beckoned their child home. The others had already drifted away and she took off after them, knowing that she was going to get yelled at for it. The presence increased gradually until she came into Cybertronian airways where she pulled up abruptly and gawked. There was an enormous mech hovering there, seemingly asleep, and she could see the Autobots running around on the surface.

'_Wha…?'_

**You are surprised, little one?**

'_You…you're Cybertron?!'_

**I am Primus.**

She froze again, her CPU shorting for a moment. _'That is just wrong!'_ she screamed.

**How?**

'_Ewewew! Our planet is a giant mech! You pervert!'_

**Pervert?**

'_There are couples interfacing and bonding every hour of the day on your surface!'_

**I do not pay attention.**

'_Sure you don't,'_ she sneered, her respect for their kind's creator failing quickly.

Primus chuckled gently before his head twitched, snapping her back to reality. She didn't bother focusing on him anymore, heading down to the surface to find her vanished comrades. Blacksprite waved her tail back and forth to signal her position, dodging away from Snarl as he tried to snap his jaws down on her back.

'_Bad dog,'_ she growled before she transformed and slammed her foot into his back.

Snarl rolled a short distance before leaping back to his feet. Blacksprite leapt up beside her, meowing in her most ferocious voice in hopes to scare him off. The wolf-former merely chuckled before charging again, jaws open in hopes to bite one of them. Blacksprite darted aside before bringing her paw down on his hind leg, making him howl in pain. He spun on her again, fangs tearing at the air inches from her face, but she boldly stood her ground. Whitesilence asked if she needed any more assistance, wondering if she was needed elsewhere, and was given the affirmation that she was alright. She nodded, telling her niece to be careful, before she took off to find a real fight.

She quickly found Thundercracker and Jetfire fighting, dodging around spare laser fire. She demanded a report out of the blue jet, who was quick to shoot his mouth off about this being hopeless. She ignored his drivel, digging through his mind to find what she wanted. She snorted in satisfaction before advising him to shoot Jetfire in the underside of his alt. mode. She nodded in approval as the cargo plane went spiraling towards the ground, a trail of purple smoke issuing behind him.

She kept moving, locking onto Scourge's coordinates. She felt herself grow in excitement, dying for the chance to destroy the Autobots. She spotted Scourge fighting with Optimus and silently asked if he needed assistance. He quickly ordered her not to interfere, his arrogance expressed in his thoughts. She rolled her optics in annoyance before heading off to find Ransack and Crumplezone. She heard shouting up ahead before Ransack crashed into her leg, sending them both sprawling on the ground, Whitesilence landing on top of the smaller red mech.

"Ow," he whined before trying to wiggle out from under her. "Come on doll, move! There are crazy Scrapmetals after us!"

She stood up, careful to dig her heel into his groin. _'My name is Whitesilence, vermin, and I fail to see any Scrapmetal,' _she growled.

He squeaked several times before pointing in the direction he had came from. She looked up and stared in disbelief at the sight before her. Crumplezone was firing at the horde of Scrapmetal, yelling his head off in terror. She caught the lead Scrapmetal's mindwave and knew she had to get the green dimwit out of there; they were going to kill him.

'_Crumplezone, move!'_ she ordered before she raced forward.

He kept firing, even as they tackled him to the ground and began to bite him. She felt panic rise in her and felt her spark freeze as Crumplezone's body exploded. Ransack cried out behind her, snapping her out of her stupor, and she continued to run towards the Scrapmetal. They lunged at her from their latest victim, but she shot several before a large red Scrapmetal smashed into them, sending them everywhere. Redscream hissed at them, challenging them to a fight, but a large blue one paused, tilting its head curiously and creeping closer, sniffing at her hind leg.

Redscream squeaked before slamming her hind end onto the ground, causing several of the other Scrapmetal to look at her curiously. Whitesilence decided she didn't want to know and advanced onto her fallen comrade. The remaining Scrapmetal were killed with a few well aimed shots and she was able to assess Crumplezone's damage. She fought her urge to flinch as she took in all the burned metal and his prone position. His optics flickered weakly up at her as she bent down beside him, wondering if she should give him a merciful death.

"Crumplezone!" Ransack cried before appearing at her elbow, tears shining in his optics. "Oh Primus, we gotta get him outta here!"

She wanted to tell the smaller mech that he was going to die no matter what they did, but the part of her spark that held affection told her not to. She nodded slowly before gingerly lifting the injured mech up, fighting down her winces as he whimpered in pain. His mindwaves were erratic, panicking at the fact that he was going to die. Ransack was fighting back tears, his mind running through precious memories that she tried to ignore, but she finally felt her aloof resolve break and dissolve when Ransack let out an involuntary sob.

'_Ransack,'_ she sighed, horrified that she was asking the smaller mech this, _'were you and Crumplezone…romantically involved?'_

He jerked his head up to look at her, green optics bright in shock. "How…where did you get that idea?" he demanded.

'_You're crying…and remembering nights when he held you tightly,'_ she replied as Redscream darted over to them, the remains of another Scrapmetal in her mouth.

"We're brothers," he replied with a small grin. "Guess from someone who doesn't know us you'd think we were partners."

She felt her cheeks burn in embarrassment before she set Crumplezone down gently on the ground. He smiled up at her, optics still flickering weakly.

"I've got myself a pretty guardian angel," he choked out.

She blinked several times, not use to such endearing terms coming from subordinates. She felt her spark croon in her chest and she smiled before resting her hand on his cheek. She leant in and kissed his forehead, making him go limp while making Ransack snicker. She pulled back, letting the brothers comfort each other. Ransack kept telling him that everything was going to be alright, but they both knew that Crumplezone was going to be leaving them. Redscream wisely kept a fair distance from them, churring softly in a farewell song.

Whitesilence knelt down beside her pet, stroking her head reassuringly. A presence entered the periphery of her sensory range again, and she looked up in curiosity. It was strange, almost like it was hovering between coming and teleporting. Redscream growling softly, shifting around as Ransack looked up too.

"Hey, look! It's Megatron!" he shouted before hopping up and waving his arm in the air.

Whitesilence did not believe what her optics were transmitting to her. Megatron, who she had seen shatter into a million pieces, was gliding towards them, wrapped in a dense aura of darkness. Her intakes hitched as an orange Scrapmetal leapt out of nowhere and landed not far away from him, shooting repeatedly at his back. The lasers vanished into him before he turned around slowly to face the semi-drone. It snarled before leaping onto his front, trying to eat him, but the darkness rolled over it. It threw its head back in pain, screaming at the sky before it vanished altogether without a trace.

Ransack gasped in horror before Megatron turned back around, advancing slowly again. Ransack whimpered before scrambling away, unintentionally backing up into her lap and clinging to her arm. She wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into her chest as she stared at her father in confusion as he reached out and grabbed Crumplezone's chestplate, engulfing him in darkness. Crumplezone started howling in pain, causing Ransack to hide his face in her shoulder and whimper. She hugged him closer, reacting like an overprotective mother as Megatron's optics flashed. The glow vanished and Crumplezone stood up before turning around.

"You can come out of hiding, little buddy," he called.

Ransack pulled back, uneasy after the episode. "Hey CZ…you feeling okay?" he asked nervously.

"Never better," Crumplezone crowed. "I've never felt this good before or this powerful! It's amazing."

She regarded his new colour scheme in admiration. Black looked good on him with the red metal on his upper arms and sides, the orange flames accenting his look even more. He blinked at her, immediately looking away with a reddening face, taking her gaze to be one of infatuation rather than merely assessing. She laughed gently before standing up and letting Ransack walk over to his brother. The two of them smirked at each other before transforming and tearing off, driving in circles around one another as they shouted about being the "Masters of Disaster". She smiled after them before walking over to Megatron, who was holding his hand up in front of his face, a thoughtful frown on his mouth.

She reached up and touched his shoulder, causing his head to snap down and glare at her for a moment. His blue optics softened somewhat as his hand, ghostly cold, brushed along her cheek, causing her to shiver. Redscream purred as she rubbed against Megatron's leg, only to leap back with a hiss at the dark coils that had tried to wrap around her. Megatron let out a hollow sounding chuckle before he leant his head on Whitesilence's, optics distant for a time.

'Crumplezone and Ransack will need guidance,' he stated after a pause.

'_I suppose that duty falls on my shoulders?'_ she asked.

He chuckled before nodding. 'By the way you were clutching Ransack to your chest, I'd say you already have a foundation of trust with them,' he stated.

'_I highly doubt Ransack will ever let me do that again,'_ she chuckled before hugging him the best she could through the dark matter that surrounded him. _'I'm glad your back, father.'_

'Not fully, not yet,' he replied before rubbing her arm. 'I must get moving, keep these two in line,' he ordered.

She nodded before reluctantly pulling back. He drifted off, heading towards the sounds of a fight in the east. She shook her head sadly before transforming to go look for the two trouble-makers. Something told her that looking after those two was going to be as bad as making sure that Redscream and Blacksprite didn't kill each other. She drove off in search for her new charges, making sure to keep an optic on her pet racing beside her incase a stray laser fire hit her. Her armor may have been better than the rest of her kind, but it still could take heavy damage.

"I think we just got crowned," she heard Ransack moan up ahead.

She glanced up and mentally shook her head. Crumplezone and Ransack were lying in a heap, one on top of the other, and Hot Shot drove past them laughing, Override right behind him. She sighed before driving up to the two and transforming, looking down at them with a bored expression, one hand resting on her hip.

'_You two are more trouble than you are worth,'_ she sighed.

"Aww, come on! Give us a break will ya?" Ransack moaned before he managed to sit up. "We're still young here!"

'_I'm afraid that will not be an excuse anymore,'_ she replied before grabbing him by the scruff and hauling him off of his brother so that Crumplezone could get up. _'Blacksprite is younger than both of you, but she is a far better fighter. Since you both are now under my guidance and supervision, you had better start acting like warriors.'_

"Says who?" Ransack snapped, wiggling in her grasp.

'_Megatron,'_ she replied as Redscream helped Crumplezone get back up. _'If you have a problem with it, take it up with him.'_

Ransack growled before crossing his arms like a spoilt sparkling. "And why do we need you to baby-sit us?" he demanded.

'_Maybe because you and Crumplezone have no battlefield experience, are immature, and lack obedience,'_ Whitesilence replied, giving him a shake.

"HEY! Why do you keep treating me like I'm some sparkling?" Ransack demanded, trying to turn around to glare at her. "I'm probably older than you are!"

'_You barely look like you've seen a hundred years yet,'_ she replied evenly.

He froze for a moment before snarling. "It ain't none of your business!" he shouted, swinging his fists at her. "It ain't, you hear me?!"

Her optics softened before she carefully set Ransack down on the ground and turned him to face her. _'Ransack, I didn't mean anything by what I said,'_ she cooed gently as she knelt down to be optic-level with him. _'Your history is your own; I'm here to make you a soldier.'_

Ransack growled weakly at her before trying to pull away. "I'm not some stupid sparkling," he snapped. "I can fight."

'_Street fighting and war are different things entirely, Ransack,'_ she stated gently, already pulling him closer to hug him. _'Your knowledge will not help you when you are pinned down by Autobots too far away to swing a fist at.'_

He growled at her again before sighing. "Why do you talk to me like I'm a sparkling?" he demanded.

She laughed gently before kissing his helm. _'Because I'm use to talking to Blacksprite that way,'_ she replied before standing up and glancing at where Crumplezone was kicking at the dirt. _'Something wrong, Crumplezone?'_

"Well…it's just that…um," Crumplezone stuttered before gulping. "YourereallyreallyprettyandIthinkIloveyou," he blurted out in one sentence before turning around and hiding his face.

Whitesilence blinked a few times as she tried to figure out what he said. She winced slightly before sighing and shaking her head. _'Crumplezone,'_ she sighed before walking over to him and resting a hand on his shoulder, _'sweetspark, I'm already taken.'_

He lowered his head and his shoulders sagged. "I should have kept my mouth shut," he muttered.

She smiled before kissing his cheek, making his face heat up. _'It was brave to admit such a thing,'_ she cooed. _'You're going to make a great soldier.'_

Ransack hopped onto Crumplezone and tackled him to the ground. "No fair! I saw her first!" he shouted before he started fighting with his older brother.

Redscream shook her head while Whitesilence groaned and rubbed her temples. She could tell this was going to be a long, long day, made even longer by the fact that Primus decided to laugh in her head at the display. The universe must have been against her today, she decided, until she got a familiar command.

"All Decepticons head for these co-ordinates," Megatron ordered.

The brothers stopped fighting at the sound of Redscream squealing, running around them in circles. Whitesilence ordered them to their feet before transforming into her car mode and taking off towards the co-ordinates. They were both behind her in an instant, still fighting over who saw her first, making Redscream grumble. She ignored them before skidding around a turn and falling in beside Scourge, who had to jump aside to make sure he didn't trip over her in mid-stride.

"What do you think you are doing?" he demanded before Redscream scrambled to stay with her, Crumplezone and Ransack having fallen back to hang out with Thundercracker.

'_Taking my place,'_ she replied before adding smugly, _'soldier.'_

"You are amused by the fact that you are now of a higher rank?" he asked.

'_Naturally,'_ she replied before Megatron drove up on her other side, a black and silver lion racing beside him. _'Who?'_

"Nemesis Breaker," he replied evenly. "Born from Leobreaker's own doubts."

'_Don't you just love to cause trouble,'_ she commented with a laugh. _'Just keep him away from Sprite; she doesn't need to be chased by a lion.'_

"I will make sure he does not," he chuckled before they drove on.

Blacksprite turned up a moment later, favoring her right hind leg but still running as fast as she could. She gave the lion a look before squeaking and hopping onto Scourge, who roared in surprise.

"Get off!" he shouted, beginning to act like a bucking bronco.

"No way! Not while that lion's there!" she yelped in surprise.

Whitesilence mentally groaned before pressing on; this was going to be a long day.


	11. Starscream

Chapter 10 Starscream

"Blacksprite, would you cut it out?" Ransack asked as he watched the black panther hide behind Whitesilence's leg.

She whimpered before shaking her head, refusing to budge as Nemesis Breaker sat obediently by Megatron's feet. She was absolutely terrified of the large lion and hated being anywhere near him, even when ordered to by Megatron. It was annoying considering the two cats probably could have been a powerful team when paired up, but now that the youngling was having a spark attack every time she so much as caught a glimpse of the lion, that thought was history.

'_Blacksprite, he won't hurt you,'_ Whitesilence soothed as she bent down to stroke her helm.

"I don't like him," Blacksprite whimpered as she huddled closer, her yellow optics not leaving the still body of Nemesis Breaker. "He's scary."

'_And yet you adore my father,'_ Whitesilence replied with a shake of her head.

Blacksprite giggled slightly at the comment before hiding her head in the crook of her aunt's arm. Whitesilence gave her father an apologetic look before hoisting the panther cub up onto her shoulders, awaiting new orders. Megatron growled before turning away, glaring out across the roof tops of the city where the Autobots were holed up for the moment. His optics narrowed into slits of ice, causing everyone to take a step back in case they got the brunt end of his fury.

"We head for the Omega Lock," he snarled before he turned and transformed, leaping off of the building. "The first person that finds Prime is to report to me immediately!"

"Alright!" Ransack shouted as he hoped off the building and bounced along the ground when he transformed. "Time to party!"

Whitesilence transformed and let Blacksprite hop onto her back, streaking off after her father. Redscream was chasing after Crumplezone and Ransack, growling weakly as she tried to keep up with the two speed-demons. The others raced ahead of them, shouting something about the inevitable battle ahead of them.

'_Ransack, Crumplezone, stay where I can see you,'_ Whitesilence ordered before Ransack groaned over the com-link.

"What are you, my mother?" he demanded.

'_Considering you are both my charges now and are under my watchful optic, yes, start thinking of me that way,'_ she replied.

Ransack moaned loudly before he tried to speed up, only for Redscream to hiss and hop on him, dragging him to the side. He yelped loudly as he transformed, kicking madly at her stomach as he started to panic. Whitesilence transformed and landed quickly, Blacksprite hitting the ground on all fours as she watched Redscream and Ransack roll around on the ground. Whitesilence gently pulled Redscream off, humming deeply in her chest as she pet her pet's head, and attempted to calm her down. Ransack was breathing shallowly on the ground, his green optics widened as he stared at the Scrapmetal in terror.

"What is wrong with that thing?!" he demanded as he tried to back up. "Why did it attack me?!"

"Because she wanted you to stop," Blacksprite replied before bouncing over and rubbing her head against Ransack's and purring deeply. "She wouldn't have hurt you!"

"How can I trust it when it keeps attacking me?" he demanded as he hugged Blacksprite closer to him.

'_Redscream will not attack unless ordered to,'_ Whitesilence stated as she rested her hand on her pet's head. _'You can be assured of that.'_

He swallowed as he stood up, shaking uncontrollably before he patted Blacksprite's head. She purred happily before she yowled in surprise and darted aside, just in time to avoid getting shot. Whitesilence has her gun out in a second, firing into the air at the green cargo jet that was flying towards them. Redscream snarled as she charged forward, leaping into the air to hit his underside and send them both careening towards the ground.

'_Come on!'_ Whitesilence ordered as she raced after her pet, hoping to reach her before Jetfire was able to offline her.

She could hear her snarling and hissing up ahead, tell-tale signs that she was alive at least. Ransack and Crumplezone were right on her heels, huffing and puffing as they tried to keep up; they were not fast runners it would appear. She rounded a corner just in time to get hit with Redscream as she was flung through the air with a screech. They hit the ground hard and she wrapped her arms around her pet, rolling away as a laser ate into the ground where she had been a second before.

"I should have known that you would turn up here," Jetfire growled as he walked towards her. "Sending your pet to do your dirty work"

'_She obviously was doing a good job,'_ she replied as she stood up, dropping Redscream onto the ground.

Jetfire snorted as he pointed his gun at her. "Who gave you permission to come here?" he demanded.

'_Free planet,'_ she replied before hoisting her gun onto her shoulder. _'Or did it suddenly stop being that because I am a Decepticon?'_

He lunged at her and attempted to hit her alongside the head with his gun, but she dodged around him, smirking teasingly as he spun around. "You Decepticons don't deserve any of the rights of Cybertronians! You aren't even worthy to be called Cybertronians! You're all monsters!" he snarled before her fist crashed into his face.

'_You DARE to speak like that when they took you in and cared for you and your brother?'_ she snarled.

He stumbled backwards before whipping around, swinging a fist for her face "You don't know what you're talking about," he spat as he caught her under the jaw and slammed her into the closest building. "You know nothing about my life."

She snarled as she pulled herself out of the indent she had made in the building, signalling to the mechs behind Jetfire to attack. Ransack leapt on him first, managing to get a strangle hold on the large mech, pulling him down onto the ground with a gagging noise. She walked over as Ransack wiggled out from under Jetfire, grinning wildly at her, before she planted her heel onto Jetifire's chest. He glared up at her, his chest rising slowly beneath her foot as she put more pressure on it.

'_Alright, Autobot,'_ she sneered before crouching down and smirking, _'you tell me how to get the Omega Lock and I'll let you live.'_

"I'm not going to tell you anything, wench!" Jetfire snapped before attempting to wiggle away. "I still don't know how you managed to live this long to begin with! Megatron usually kills whatever femme that joins up."

"Why is he talking like that?" Blacksprite asked as she bounced over, wrinkling her nose cutely. "He sounds like an idiot."

She smirked at her niece before swatting at her gently, not wanting to get Jetfire anymore annoyed since he was still clutching his gun. She touched his forehead before flashing her optics, feeling him squirming under her foot as he realized what she was going to do. She snorted before Blacksprite hopped forward and pinned his legs down, grinning like she had just done the cleverest thing in the universe, before she dove into the recesses of Jetfire's mind.

It didn't take long to find what she was looking for, ignoring memories as best as she could. Truns out there was no way to remove the Omega Lock now that it was fused with Primus. She growled bitterly before she stood up, kicking Jetfire's side as she turned away. She transformed and took off, ordering the others to follow on foot as she headed for Megatron's location. Ransack and Crumplezone started complaining below her, but she ignored them as Redscream hissed to shut them up.

'**Troubled?'** Megatron's voice growled through her mind.

'_The Omega Lock is stuck in Primus; we can't get it now,'_ she replied.

'**Are you sure?'**

'_Positive,'_ she replied. _'Minds don't lie as well as glossas do.'_

'**Hmm, an interesting turn of events. It doesn't matter now; we need to find Starscream and stop him from even touching the Omega Lock,'** he ordered.

'_Can't you two ever get along?'_ she sighed as she continued flying along.

'**Never,'** he replied. **'Now stop questioning me and get over here.'**

'_Coming,'_ she growled in reply, annoyed that her father was being such a jerk over that one simple question.

She sighed mentally before another mind entered her range and she froze for a moment. She gunned her engines as she nimbly dodged around Starscream's huge alt. mode. She hissed at him through her mind and headed for the ground, knowing full well that he was right on her tailfins.

'_You can stop looking for Starscream,'_ she called to her father. _'I found him!'_

"Hello, darling," Starscream crooned as he chased after her. "Don't mind if I tag along, do you?"

'_Slag off!'_ she shouted as he clipped her tailfins. _'Do you want me to fall out of the sky!?"_

"Be easier to catch you if you did,"he commented. "Considering you are following Megatron now, you are an enemy."

'_Oh for the love of Primus!'_ she groaned.

"Funny you should mention him," Starscream purred before he transformed and sent her screaming towards the ground, "When I'm the closest thing to him in the Universe!"

She hit the ground and slid, transforming painfully as she stopped at the base of a building. She heard several shouts as she managed to painfully sit up, energon leaking out of her arm where it had been scraped along the ground. She looked up as Starscream landed not far from her, grinning like an idiot as he advanced slowly, almost as if she was the most humorous sight to behold. She stumbled to her feet, glaring up at him as she winced in pain, clutching her arm as more energon dribbled down.

"Aww, did I hurt you?" he crooned as he stepped forward.

'_You're going to get it,'_ she snarled as she side-stepped out of the trail she had made in the planet's surface.

"Am I now?" he sneered as he stepped closer. "Who's going to defend you? Megatron? He would rather leave you for scrap; he doesn't care about you!"

'_Don't start that fight up again after we buried it!'_ she spat before she clenched her hands into fists. _'Megatron might be an egomaniac that is Pit-bent on conquering the universe but he is still my father! And Primus can send me to the deepest points of the Pit before I even think about harming him!'_

"Are you blind?!" he demanded, taking another step towards her. "He's been treating you like scrap and you still defend him? Why?"

'_What part of 'he's my father' do you misunderstand?'_ she snapped. _'You can't tell what his forms of caring are, but I can. He might not act it, but he still cares about me. He just has forgotten how to show it.'_

"You really are blind to his faults, aren't you?" he snapped.

'_Bout as blind as I am to yours,'_ she replied acidly.

"Was that supposed to be a comeback?" he demanded. "I have no faults!"

She shook her head before darting to the side, barring her fangs at Starscream as he caught himself in time to not crash into the ground. He turned on her slowly, growling before two laser hit him in the back, drawing a yelp from him. He spun around in time to get hit in the face by Ransack and Crumplezone as they jumped on him.

"How that for a sneak attack, Star-scam?" Ransack shouted as he leapt off of Starscream and hit the ground, smirking like an idiot as his older brother landed beside him.

Starscream growled before bringing his hand down to crush them both. "No!" Blacksprite's voice cried out before she landed on his face and started clawing. "Leave them alone!"

"Gah!" he shouted before swiping at her and sending her flying into Whitesilence. "BLACKSPRITE!"

She hissed at him as she leapt back to her feet, glaring up at him. "Don't hurt them!"

"Excuse me?" Starscream demanded as he loomed over her.

"I said don't hurt them!" she shouted at him, her back arching in an attempt to look bigger.

He growled before picking her up delicately by the scruff and let her dangle in front of his face. She hissed and swiped at him, looking very pathetic as he gave her a rough shake. "You don't order me around, young femme," he snapped.

She hissed at him before hanging there limply, her mouth moving as she whispered something. Starscream's face softened slightly as he dropped her into his other hand, using a finger to gently stroke her back. She purred as she curled up and rolled over in his palm, swatting playfully at his fingers as she yowled in delight. He chuckled before his cockpit opened and he gently deposited her inside, clicking his glossa as he glanced down at the stunned Decepticons on the ground.

"What?" he demanded.

'_I got pictures of that,'_ Whitesilence replied with a smirk.

"Frag you, Whitesilence," he grumbled before he ducked a few lasers fired at his head. "Well, if it isn't the Decepticon leader."

"Starscream," Megatron growled before he transformed and glared up at him. "I should have known you go chasing after my top general."

Starscream glanced down at her before smirking. "Afraid to admit that she would rather come with me?" he asked sweetly.

If her hand was currently keeping her energon inside her body, Whitesilence would have slammed her hand to her forehead. Not this old argument again, please don't start this one up again after they had finally laid it to rest for a while. It was really starting to annoy her at this point since they never seemed to let the stupid fight die; how was she supposed to choose between her future mate and father anyways? She wondered if the Autobots ever had to put up with slag like this; probably not since most of their members were at least some-what sane.

"Excuse me?" Megatron growled as he move forward, his hand sparking electricity.

"Whitesilence would much rather be around me than stick around a hypocrite like you," Starscream sneered.

Megatron snarled before firing the electricity at him. "Whitesilence is a loyal warrior, Starscream, and would not abandon her cause for your sad little rebellion!"

'_Would you please stop fighting over this?'_ she asked as she leant against a wall as her legs started to feel weak. _'It's a dead fight, one that neither of you can win because you're fighting over something stupid!'_

Both of them looked at her in mild surprise before Starscream turned to reach for her, concern finally reaching his face. Megatron beat him over to her, growling territorially at him before he gently pried her hand off of her arm, frowning at the injury. He covered it with his own, muttering about a medic before he was knocked aside by Starscream, who snarled in rage, his hand slamming down beside her. She jumped in surprise before he turned towards her, purple optics burning with rage.

He growled before snatching her up, ignoring her weak squeak of protest. His cockpit clicked open before he dropped her in, Redscream materializing behind her to scramble in. She guessed that she had been following her the whole time since Redscream could not teleport; Scrapmetals lacked any kind of special upgrade like that. She sat up weakly, clutching her arm again as she hissed in pain, Blacksprite's head nuzzling its way under her arm.

"Are you ok, Auntie?" she asked, big yellow eyes glowing in the near blackness of Starscream's cockpit.

'_I'll live,'_ she replied before she felt Starscream transform underneath them. _'What are you planning you psycho?!'_

"We're going back to my base," he replied.

"Why? Why can't we stay here?" Blacksprite asked before she tilted her head. "Why don't you and Megatron get along anymore?"

"We never got along," Starscream growled. "That fool doesn't understand what it means to have real power."

Whitesilence tried her best not to roll her optics in disgust at that comment; all this over the same stupid idea. "True power" did not exist because there were thousands of different kinds of power, all in varying degrees. She had seen Autobots weakened from wounds come back and kill off a whole wave of soldiers before anyone had managed to get a laser through his head. She had been impressed by the enemies abilities, and had had her first taste of a different power; the one that came when you knew you were dying. She hoped that she never encountered that particular variety in her lifetime, but it startled her at the thought that it could drive someone on that much.

Starscream's growl of annoyance brought her back to reality with a jolt, looking up as his cockpit opened. "Everyone out so I can transform properly," he growled.

She shook her head before she hopped out, hissing as she landed and pain flared up dully in her arm. Blacksprite and Redscream landed on either side of her before they were scooped up as Starscream transformed. She stiffened before sighing and settling herself down on his palm as he walked briskly down the hallway, anger seething off of him for some reason. She tilted her head as he entered the control room, setting them down on a table as he started typing in commands.

"What's wrong, Uncle?" Blacksprite asked as she bounced forward.

"You can't get good help these days," he snarled as he finished typing. "Prepare for a warp jump; you might lose your fuel tank."

"He's kidding...right?" Blacksprite squeaked as she looked up at Whitesilence.

'_Of course, little one,'_ she chuckled as she pet her head.

Blacksprite mewed softly before Starscream picked them up again, cradling them to his chest like sparklings as he sat down in a huge throne. Whitesilence glared at him, not enjoying being the size of a sparkling again, but she leant her cheek against his cockpit as the heat from his spark reached her. Blacksprite curled up with a purr of delight, having missed being small enough to get this cuddle. Redscream had scrambled up onto his shoulder and was licking her leg with a faint purr, not even bothering to pause and think about how Starscream would take the act.

"Silence, get your pet off of me while she's cleaning herself," he grumbled.

'_She's female, Starscream; you have nothing to worry about,'_ she replied evenly before leaning on his chest more as she felt the ship heave from side to side. _'And there goes my fuel tank.'_

"You're a flyer; you've been through worse," Starscream teased before the matter around them faded and stretched around them.

Blacksprite let out a loud yelp before she clutched Starscream's chest plate, yellow optics wide in fright. Starscream's hand rand down her back soothingly as everything snapped back into place a second later, ending with several tools crashing to the floor. Redscream screeched before hopping onto the ground to chase after them, hissing in delight and excitement while Blacksprite giggled weakly. Whitesilence smiled and gave the cub a small push to get her to go play with the Scrapmetal. She mewed softly before jumping down to chase after Redscream as she took off with a wrench.

"How's your arm?" Starscream asked as a finger travelled through the energon that stained her armor.

'_It's sore, but the energon has stopped running,'_ she replied evenly as she leant against him.

"I'll have Sideways fix when he turns up," he replied gently as his huge hand covered her like a blanket.

She nodded before closing her optics and listening to Redscream and Blacksprite race around on the ground. She relaxed against her boyfriend's chest, breathing deeply as she was lulled into recharge by his finger gently stroking her back like he use to when she was a sparkling. She smiled as she curled up and let herself drift off into recharge, listening to Starscream's spark hum just behind the glass of his cockpit.

**Author's note:** You can definitely tell which stories demand my attention more; they get the longer chapters. Yeah, eventually I will get to the parts that I will actually want to write...or maybe my brain will eventually stop jumping around enough to let me focus. Yeah, poll still up so please vote so I know what you all want to read and want me to update more often.


	12. To Gigantian

Chapter 12 To Gigantian

Whitesilence woke with a soft groan of pain. Her arm still ached, but she discovered that the wound had been repaired while she had been recharging. Flexing her numb fingers, she hoisted herself up into a sitting position and glanced around. She was in a medbay, which was enough comfort for her, but no one else seemed to be around. Not that that bothered her too much as it meant she could leave any time she wished, she just was not sure which direction to head in order to find Starscream.

Shaking herself off, she rose to her feet and took a few shaky steps towards a door. Her unbalanced walk worried her, but she guessed it was from lack of energon and being out for a long time. It would simply take a bit of time for her to stop wobbling around and she would be back to normal. Just as she was about to reach the door, it slid open to let another mech in.

"Oh, you're up sooner than I had hoped," the mech huffed, folding his arms over his chest. "I had hoped that you would be out until we got to Gigantian, but I guess that was a little much to hope for."

_"Why would it matter if I woke early?_" she asked, tilting his head a little.

"Great, I hate telepathy," the mech whined before shrugging. "Well, we have to pass through a wormhole that only allows child-like minds to pass through. Seen as how we're all adults, except for the kitten and the Scrapmetal, we are likely to have our minds separated from our bodies."

"_Joy,"_ she groaned before rubbing at her optics. _"Do you know where Starscream is? I really must speak with him about our…current situation."_

"Main room down the hallway; can't miss it or him," the mech replied as he pointed over his shoulder. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have work to do."

Nodding, Whitesilence left the room and headed down the hallway. She had to admit that the ship she was one was huge, large enough for even Starscream; as large as he was; to walk around comfortably. Vaguely worried about how big the makers of ship must have been, she wandered into the main control room and smirked at the sight of Blacksprite chasing Redscream around with a very "vicious" growl. Redscream was, for her part, just running and not really at all worried.

Smirking, she walked around the play area and headed over to where Starscream was sitting. Tapping his leg to get his attention, she gave a pointed look and allowed him to scoop her up. Depositing her on his shoulder, he returned his attention to the chase in front of him.

"_So, we are going to risk our lives going through a wormhole,"_ she commented a little bitterly. _"Any particular reason why?"_

"The last Cyber Planet Key lies on the other side," Starscream replied. "With it, I can achieve ultimate power and reshape the universe accordingly."

Whitesilence was about to demand how his goal was any different from Megatron's, but chose not to. Fighting with him would not get them any closer to understanding each other or get the two mechs to get along without squabbling like morons. Sighing, she leant against his helm and wondered how either of them were going to manage to get through the wormhole. With the fact that their minds could be separated from their bodies, it almost did not seem worth the risk.

"You doubt," Starscream commented dryly. "Would you rather be unsure of success with your father?"

"_Of course I doubt; there is a chance that I will suffer horribly because you want power,"_ she replied snappishly. _"If I was with my father, I would be giving him the same response. I HATE that you two act like a couple of males competing for my attention."_

Snarling softly, Starscream turned his head away and refused to answer her. Rolling her optics at his clear display of sparkling behaviour, she watched Blacksprite and Redscream chase each other around. At some point, Starscream got up and moved, not really paying any attention to her as she slipped off his shoulder and went to roll around on the ground to wrestle with Blacksprite and Redscream.

Shortly after she let Blacksprite pin her down, the whole ship trembled. Blacksprite let out a soft whimper of fear and backed off quickly, looking around as Starscream remained standing by a solitary window. Redscream scuttled over and comforted her quickly, making sure to keep her quiet as Starscream turned to sit down in his chair.

Sighing a little, Whitesilence sat down on the ground and tried to make sure that she did not slide around pointlessly. The last thing she wanted to do was crash into something and possibly blackout, only to never wake up again. While that would be a peaceful way to go, she did not much entertain the idea of dying at all on this journey. Hopefully, Starscream had some idea on how to get them through the wormhole safely.

The ship was shaking violently and Whitesilence took to the air to avoid being vibrated across the floor. Starscream seemed to finally realize that none of them were enjoying the ride and was quick to scoop up Blacksprite and Redscream. His finger stroked over his niece's back as Redscream curled up to nap, not at all put off by the very agitating rocking of the ship. Landing on Starscream's shoulder, she slid down to a sitting position and leant on her mechfriend's helm.

'_And how long will it take to get to the planet?'_ she asked as she settled comfortably onto his shoulder.

"Not sure," Starscream replied. "It should not be far; perhaps an hour or two's travel at most after we leave the wormhole."

'_If we get through.'_

"You doubt me?" Starscream growled as he turned to look at her. "You are beginning to sound like your father."

Whitesilence rolled her optics and refused to honour him with a response. It was foolish for him to continue acting snappy over something so horribly simple. It really was very grating to hear him complain about her acting like her father over situations that should have been more thought out. But, of course, with the little feud going on between the two mechs, it was not surprising that she would be caught in the middle.

The trip through the wormhole was actually very smooth. There was only one instance where she felt herself drifting away, but Starscream's voice managed to ground her in reality. Aside from a little rocking in the beginning, there was no instance of extreme discomfort for the remainder of the journey. Blacksprite was anxious to leave and when black space appeared in the window and on the monitors, she was on the ground in a sparkpulse.

Smiling, Whitesilence followed her down onto the floor and stretched. Redscream was beside her an instant later, purring softly as she rubbed against Whitesilence's leg. Starscream was growling orders at the only other mech on the entire ship and completely ignoring the three femmes. Not that the three of them really minded since they had no idea how to even control the massive ship. While they were more than capable of learning, being in alien space was not the most ideal place to do so.

"Are we there yet?" Blacksprite asked, tilting her head to the side.

"Almost," Starscream replied. "We should be arriving at the Giant Planet soon. Then, it will only be a matter of tracking down the Cyber Planet Key."

'_Because that will be so easy,'_ Whitesilence sighed. _'Searching an entire planet for one little Key. We have no idea where to go, where to search, or where to take the Key after we find it.'_

"Enough of your pessimism, Whitesilence," Starscream snarled. "We will find the Key and we will achieve ultimate power!"

Snorting, Whitesilence looked at the screen as they started flying through an asteroid field. Sideways guided them easily through the field, humming some sort of tune about lambs and ivy. While it was cute, Whitesilence was more concerned about the speed they were picking up as they approached the monster planet. Starscream began to voice the same concerns right before the gravity of the planet grabbed the ship and started pulling them in.

"Hold on," Starscream snarled as the front of the ship tipped down towards the planet. "Sideways, try to pull us up!"

"I can't! All the power to the engines has been drained!" Sideways' growled in response. "Our best bet is to hope we hit something soft!"

'_If we make it out of this, you are getting your aft kicked,'_ Whitesilence promised as she held Blacksprite close to her.

Sliding towards the control panels as the whole ship was almost turned vertical, she offlined her optics. Feeling her feet slam into the console, she held Blacksprite close to her and braced both of them for impact. This was not going to be a smooth landing at all.

**Author's note:** Finally updating something else! For those of you who have been on my profile page of late have seen my announcement. As I realized now, working on the _It Takes A Girl_ Trilogy was a bad move as, after three story arcs, I just don't want to write anything anymore. I will try to get chapter up, but for now I will be working on something else to let my muse return at her own pace. Also, _Infinite Bond_ is discontinued. As stated, it was lots of fun to RP, but it was no fun to edit and put up. Also, most of my notes are floating around all over the place and I just do not have the capacity to track them all down anymore. So, sorry about that, but I will probably be deleting the stories off of my page at some point. That's about all in terms of updating and I hope you enjoyed the new chapter.


	13. Reunion

Chapter 13 Reunion

"Ugh, remind me never to mix oil and energon," Sideways groaned somewhere to her to her left.

'_No problem,'_ Whitesilence replied as she started to move.

Her back groaned in protest to the movement, but she managed to get herself into a sitting position. Blacksprite was huddled against her chest, optics offline as she trembled and whimpered. Redscream was on her back waving her legs angrily and hissing, not impressed that she could not manage to roll herself over. Setting Blacksprite down carefully, Whitesilence rose to roll her poor pet over.

"Well, at least we are all accounted for," Starscream sneered. "No thanks to Sideways."

"I did pretty good considering our engines were kaput!" Sideways snapped bitterly. "Besides, we're still in one piece, if a little shaken."

Starscream growled at him just as the sirens went off. Images of the Autobots firing on the ship appeared on the computer screens. Well, that was not surprising considering the Autobots always had a habit of showing up wherever Decepticons were. It was just a basic principle that they all had accepted since they started fighting with the Decepticon army. Blacksprite whined about the Autobots always ruining their fun, but Whitesilence motioned for her to be quiet.

Ordering Sideways to get the ship's guns online, Starscream let out a low growl of annoyance. Whitesilence did not bother to voice her opinion on the matter as it would only infuriate her mechfriend even more. Redscream scuttled around her, hissing softly as she begged for permission to attack the Autobots. The thought was amusing and the image of the Autobots being torn apart was quite entertaining, but it would be inappropriate if Starscream did not order it himself.

"Whitesilence, I want you, Redscream, and Blacksprite to distract the Autobots while Sideways gets the weapon system online," Starscream growled. "I will contact you when you can fall back."

'_Of course, Lord Starscream,'_ she replied evenly.

With a simple flick of her wrist, Blacksprite and Redscream were at her side awaiting further orders. Blacksprite was still trembling from the crash, but the prospect of tearing Autobots apart made her all too eager to help. Whitesilence was proud of her little niece, but she remained stern as she led them out of the ship so that they could have a clear shot at the Autobots.

'_Redscream, make sure to stay out of sight until you are close enough to take on down without risk of getting shot,'_ she reminded her pet as she ran a hand down her back. _'Blacksprite, make sure to only take on one at a time. Anymore and you are to fall back immediately, understood?'_

"Of course, Auntie," Blacksprite nodded, optics bright with desire to attack.

Nodding in return, Whitesilence took to the air and transformed. Flying head-on towards the approaching Autobots, she heard them call to one another about a counterattack. At least they understood the difference between an attack and a pure suicide mission. Dodging around the lasers was difficult in her weakened and banged up state, but it was good practice and she did not get hit once.

Transforming, she rammed her shoulder hard into the helicopter mech, Evac she believed he was called. He grunted in pain and she was quick to dislodge herself from him before Wingsabre had a chance to hack at her back with his blades.

"You sure change sides regularly," Wingsabre commented as she blocked one of his swords with her own. "First you were with Megatron, then Starscream, then Megatron again. Now, you are back with Starscream. What's the matter, doll, can't make up your mind?"

'_I was kidnapped, Sab, and why make my capture any more angry than he already is?'_ she replied coolly as she shoved the other Seeker away and swung her blade around, only to have it blocked. _'Besides, it's fun to attack the Autobots; why would I need a better reason than having the ship attacked?'_

"Aw, are you suggesting that you actually like us?" Wingsabre teased as he made to stab his sword through her face.

Blocking the attack just inches from her face, she smirked teasingly at him. _'Maybe in another lifetime, darling,'_ she cooed. _'I like my mechs bad.'_

"Just something else to live up to," he laughed as they broke apart and circled each other. "Gotta say though, your father is one scary customer now that he's got that upgrade."

'_Upgrade?'_

"Wow, you're really out of the loop, huh?" Wingsabre laughed. "Not sure what he did, but he somehow got himself upgraded and a new paintjob too. Now there's a real resemblance 'tween the two of you."

'_Well, I'll have to look into that after I'm done with you,'_ she replied. _'But that can wait for now.'_

Flipping around to Wingsabre's back, she elbowed him hard in the spinal strut. The gagged sound of pain that rushed out of his air intakes was enough to know that she had momentarily stunned him. Bringing her arm up again, she slammed her elbow down into the back of his head, temporarily knocking him out cold. And, just because she liked him, she ripped the blades off of his arms and dropped them as she let the bulkier mech fall.

At that moment, she heard a loud explosion and looked back at the ship. The Autobots were falling back, shouting at one another to get out of the way as purple lasers just clipped their armor. Starscream had decided to join the battle after all. Snorting, she watched humourlessly as the Autobots fled in terror; Starscream was not that terrifying or powerful. Or was it just that they feared the power he could potentially possess? Either way, it sickened and enraged her for some odd reason.

Luckily for her, she did not have to dwell on such thoughts for long. Starscream was already ordering her to find some way to get below ground. Why? She was not informed and did not care to sift through his mind to figure out what she was looking for. All she did was salute and fly off; best to put some distance between them when she's too aggravated to recall why she loves Starscream so much.

She could sense Redscream and Blacksprite following below her and carried on. The roadwork below her was enormous and she had to admit that it was very impressive work. Vaguely interested in the architects, she pulled up short when she almost collided with a very familiar blue Seeker and veered out of the way just in time.

"Fancy meeting you out here," Thundercracker called as he transformed and pointed his gun at her. "Playing hanky-panky with Starscream, huh?"

'_Thundercracker, just give me a reason,'_ she growled in reply, levelling her own gun with the idiot's face. _'My mood has hit an all-time low; blasting you to kingdom come would do wonders for it right now.'_

"As much fun as that would be, I'd rather let your daddy deal with you; he's been real ornery since you left with Starscream," Thundercracker snickered in reply.

'_Dare you to say that to his face,'_ she sighed as she put her gun away. _'Lead the way, great doofus, and let our leader deal with me as he pleases.'_

"When the boss' done with you, I'll show you who a doofus is," Thundercracker snapped before transforming and flying back the way he had come.

She sent a quick message to Starscream to let him know that she would be out of telepathic range for an undetermined amount of time and followed Thundercracker. Signalling the two on the ground to follow her, she stuck as close as she could to the other blue Seeker. Of course, there was a big enough gap so that he could not touch her if he suddenly turned, but it was close enough for her patience. Starscream was not impressed that she was not going to keep in touch, but she tuned his whining out; she had other things to deal with now.

Dipping towards the ground, the two of them headed for a small hole blasted into the side of a building; clearly Megatron's handy work. Thundercracker transformed as he landed heavily, calling inside in his characteristically annoying manner. Touching down silently behind him, she barely had time to grab Blacksprite before she launched herself at Scourge just as he walked out of the hole. Any sensible introductions were lost in a wave of "did you miss me"s and "get off of me"s.

"Hey, look who's back, CZ," Ransack laughed as he and Crumplezone hopped out into the open. "Lookin' good, Silence!"

'_As good as I can be given the level of medical care available under Starscream leadership,'_ she replied with a shrug. _'Good to see that you two have not been offlined while I was not there to keep you in line.'_

"We kept our noses clean," Crumplezone stated proudly.

'_I find that to be extremely doubtful,' _she teased before crossing her arms as Thunderblast walked out. _'Thunderblast.' _

"Oh, so you came snivelling back," Thunderblast sneered. "What a coincidence; your father gets a great upgrade and you come back to milk the rewards."

'_I was kidnapped, you second-rate floozy,' _Whitesilence snapped in return, throwing her arms in the air. _'Honestly! What the slag have you been force-fed while I was out cold? Everyone keeps talking like I ditched out in the middle of a battle!' _

"Who's the new femme?" a heavily accented voice asked before a mech about the same size as Starscream stepped out. "Uh…nice to meet you, miss…?"

"Whitesilence," Megatron's voice growled out. "And it is about time you showed up; I was beginning to think you decided to stay with Starscream."

'_Yes, because I want to stay with the mech that is currently acting like a spoiled rotten little…what the Pit did you do to your armour?'_

She could only stare at the mech that she knew to be her father. His armor was completely differently, consisting mainly of pure white and silver plating with some black thrown in to even it out. His once blue optics were now blood red and they stared out at her from a dark purple face. Her chassis reacted in a fashion that she never thought she would feel towards her father; she was terrified and revolted. This had to be some sick joke! There was no upgrade here like Wingsabre claimed! All she saw was a horrible paintjob and all she felt was wave after wave of pure dark energy rolling off of him.

"I became better than I was before," he growled as he lifted his hand up and admired it with a dirty smirk. "I am stronger than I use to be, faster too. No one is my equal. It's only fitting that my name becomes something more fitting as well. I am Galvatron now; such a nice ring to it, don't you think?"

Numerous thoughts ran through her head and not one of them agreed with him. She was terrified of him and the urge to shrink away was battling with the fact that she was supposed to be one of the few Cybertronians in existence that could stand at Megatron's; Galvatron's; side and be free of fear. Even Blacksprite, who had been clinging to Scourge's chest, was cowering behind her. Redscream was silent and motionless, her processor reverting to the instinct to follow her Alpha's reaction. Shaking her head, she said the only thing that sounded even half-way appropriate.

'_I don't know what to say,'_ she replied with a small shrug of her shoulders. _'I will continue to follow your command as always, my Lord, but this upgrade you speak of…feels wrong.'_

'He scares me,' Blacksprite whispered for her alone to hear.

"You will grow use to this form, Whitesilence, I assure you," Galvatron promised; Whitesilence heard the silent 'or else' in his mind; before he looked at the other soldiers. "We are splitting up to cover more ground and track down that last Cyber Planet Key. Crumplezone and Ransack, your job will be to distract Optimus Prime and his lackeys from their search whenever you can. Thundercracker, the same goes for you, but you are on your own. Blacksprite and Redscream, search on your own and stay out of sight as much as possible; I do not have time to have soldiers dying on me."

'He's changed,' Blacksprite whispered. 'He doesn't even care about me anymore.'

"Whitesilence, you will accompany Scourge and Thunderblast to the lower levels. Ensure that they do not do anything stupid. Menasor, you are with me. Move out."

'_To be honest, little one,'_ Whitesilence sighed as she walked over to Scourge and nodded to him, _'I don't think he cares about anything anymore. Be safe and stick to the shadows; if you need any assistance, you know how to contact me. Redscream, don't you dare let her get hurt.'_

'_She will be protected, Mistress,'_ Redscream promised.

As she walked after Scourge and Thunderblast, she wondered just how much her father had changed. Some small part of her warned that she would end up fulfilling that promise to Wingsabre sooner than she ever expected. The rest of her prayed that he knew what he was getting them all into.

**Author's notes:** I am certain that had Whitesilence been protoformed with the Autobots, she and Wingsabre would have been mates or just really good friends. Here, they just like to swap words and beat the slag out of each other.


	14. Down Underground

Chapter 14 Down Underground

'_And you are certain that this is the right way to go?'_ Whitesilence asked as she followed Scourge and Thunderblast.

"No, but it is the best place to start," Scourge grunted in reply. "Can't those powers do anything useful besides claw an Autobot's mind apart?"

_'Afraid not,'_ she sighed. _'I'm telepathic, not clairvoyant.'_

Thunderblast was about to make a comment, but Scourge shot a look over his shoulder that silenced her. She pouted as they continued along, looking at Scourge in a way that made Whitesilence wonder if the femme should be hit over the head with something heavy to knock her processor back into place. It was extremely tempting to do it before anyone else got to, but they were supposed to be working as a team, not trying to harm each other.

Pausing, Scourge motioned them to wait. Thunderblast was quick to pull her massive gun out, holding it up and waiting for whatever it was that Scourge heard to materialize. Whitesilence stood perfectly still as she let her mind wander out to find out what was heading for them. She hit a very weak and flimsy mind first and almost shattered the bindings without meaning to. A human? How interesting.

She dug a little bit into the weak mind, laughing to herself as she felt the consciousness fight back pathetically. Finding the information she wanted, she pulled away and tapped Scourge on the shoulder. Smirking, she passed her findings along, preening a little as he chuckled darkly. He ordered them to fall back to the last room they had been in and set a trap to capture the Autobots and human heading for them.

Keeping to the shadows, Whitesilence prepared her sword. It was going to be so much fun fighting that mech again so soon. Well, that is if Scourge or Thunderblast did not already pounce on him the moment the Autobots walked into their trap. She wasn't exactly going to jump at the chance to stomp on a human while the other two were actually fighting. That would hardly be worth the effort of calling her Cyber Key.

Finally, after the Autobots getting lost and taking an alternative route down to ambush, the trap was sprung. Although, she did not consider it much of a trap seen as how Scourge and Thunderblast just dropped in front of them and did nothing sneaky or incredibly sinister to actually make them all fear for their lives. Rather, it seemed Scourge was letting the human female give him the run around.

"Would you stop snivelling?" Thunderblast demanded. "Honestly, it's a human! If anyone is going to order you around, it's going to be me!"

Whitesilence had to hand it to the femme; she was very straightforward and brave. Fairly stupid, but still brave enough to earn a bit more respect. Considering Scourge just whined back about the human, Thunderblast was completely justified in screaming at him. Whitesilence snorted softly as she moved behind the two Autobots, letting her sword dangle loosely from her hand. As much as she hated having to take orders from Decepticons that had no clue what they were doing, she would wait for Scourge's order to attack.

Surprisingly, it was Thunderblast that seemed to take command of the whole situation. Of course, her idea of command was to trick the human and Wingsabre into following her. That left Scourge to fight Override. Somehow he managed to pull his regular dignity back up to taunt the other leader, but for the most part Whitesilence remained unimpressed.

Quickly growing bored of the fight, she let her sword return to its place on her back. She gave Scourge a quick message that she was continuing down before she turned and left the room. There was no point sticking around if she could just head in deeper and look for the Cyber Planet Key. After all, she highly doubted Scourge would need her help in defeating Override.

Heading even deeper underground in an elevator, Whitesilence wondered vaguely about what would happen once Galvatron got hold of the last Cyber Planet Key. There were no indicators as to what he would do; Starscream was just after power to show that he was the strongest, but Galvatron? No, he was unpredictable at the best of times as of late. It was impractical to try to guess his motives.

Shivering a little, the unpleasant thought of leaving the war crossed her mind. She had never had that feeling since she was young and was being bullied constantly during training. There was no reason for her to leave; she was still a general and could easily make her father see reason if he tried something stupid. And yet, there was the ever present fear of "what if" and those "what ifs" made her fuel tank turn over in fear. She did not want to just abandon her father, such a thing was foreign to her and well beyond her capabilities to do. But, at the same time, she feared for Blacksprite's safety. The safety of her niece was always more important.

But that still left her with the fearful bubble in her chest. If she left, she could go to Starscream. However, there was a good chance that he would not want her after he found out that she had returned to her father without a moment's hesitation. If Starscream rejected her, she could go to the Autobots. But, she had killed hundreds of Autobots over her lifetime and she highly doubted that any of them would want her around. It would just be a constant reminder of the murders that she had committed in the name of war. If the Autobots refused to give her asylum, then she was on her own. And that was a terrifying thought in and of itself.

To be by herself while trying to look after a youngling would be a challenge. She would need to hide somewhere with plenty of energon nearby; Cybertron most likely; and would provide suitable shelter. Then there would be making sure there were no Autobots or Decepticons around to harm her, Blacksprite, or Redscream. And if there were she would have to fight them and win all the time to avoid being driven from their shelter and….

Whining soundlessly, she turned and slammed her head hard against the side of the elevator. Why was she letting that thought wander so far away? She was not going to just up and leave! There was no reason to. Galvatron would never do anything that would make her question her standings at his side and she would not be tossed out by Starscream. Frag, if anything he would happily accept her because it meant that she chose him over her father. Wouldn't that be nice of her; pitting her mech's hatred for her creator against her desertion.

Sighing as the elevator came to a stop, she stepped out just in time to watch Starscream destroy the ceiling. Pressing herself against the wall, her processor screeched in terror at the fact that she could have just been crushed. That was something she never wanted to experience again. Although, judging by the way Starscream was stomping around like a sparkling throwing a hissy-fit, it was going to happen again. And soon.

'_Do you ever watch where you put your fragging feet?'_ she demanded as she took to the air to avoid getting pounded into the ground. _'Blacksprite never threw this much of a fit!'_

"Whitesilence?" Starscream asked in surprise before he smirked and turned to face her fully. "How fitting to meet you down here. I heard the most interesting news on my way down; do you know what it was?"

_'Enlighten me,'_ she grumbled rather bitterly.

"That you have returned to aiding Megatron, or rather Galvatron," he growled in reply. "Why?"

_'Technically, I never stopped,'_ she shrugged. _'Starscream, he's my father. Of course I'm going to help him. I'm not playing favourites with you or him; he's just my leader and I am going to remain loyal.'_

"To the father that never cared?" Starscream snarled. "I got you through the wormhole, not him!"

'_Is that supposed to impress me? Starscream, maybe I didn't WANT to go through that wormhole. Maybe I wanted to stay behind on Cybertron and keep my niece safe. Did you stop to think of that or were you too busy rolling in self-indulgence?'_

Starscream stared at her in silence, his mouth hanging open. Snorting, Whitesilence turned to explore for a passage farther down but stopped short when Starscream's hand rose in front of her. Turning a little, she raised an optic ridge at him. His optics were surprisingly saddened and he did not seem able to form words. So, instead, he motioned for her to follow him. See as she really did not have anywhere else to go, she followed.

Weaving around a few buildings, he landed beside a fairly large door and easily ripped it open. Momentarily wondering why he was tearing apart a building, she flew after him through the hole. Glancing around, she was unsurprised to find the building completely barren with plenty of floor space. Starscream had claimed a corner for himself, sitting down and propping one knee up. Holding his hand out to her once again, he smiled almost sadly at her.

"Whitesilence," he murmured as she flew over to him and landed nimbly on his chest. "I…need to ask you something."

'_I'm not going anywhere,'_ she replied gently. _'I just want this war to end, just like everyone else. Helping Megatron will get it accomplished faster. I know it seems like my answer changes every time I talk, but I'm just trying to make sense of it myself.'_

"Then forget about the war for now," Starscream replied gently. "Just…think about me and us." Pressing her against his chest, he nuzzled her helm as carefully as he could. "I've…been thinking about this for a long time and it has taken quite a bit of effort to stop you from finding out. Whitesilence…will you be my mate?"

Whitesilence was certain her spark stopped pulsing for a second. His words crashed over her, tugging away all rational thought and leaving her in a deep pool of pure, raw emotions. Without thinking about how stupid it was, she kissed Starscream's lower lip, huddling against him as she purred deep in her chest.

_'You've been waiting to ask that for how long?'_ she demanded as he carefully kissed back. _'Fragging aft!'_

"A few years," Starscream confessed. "I was scared you'd try to gut me if I asked."

Groaning a little to herself, she carefully separated her chest plates to expose her spark. Starscream's optics softened as he caught sight of the glow and carefully moved her down onto his chest. Smiling, he pulled his own chest plates apart to reveal his still normal sized spark. Smirking in amusement over the fact that his spark remained the same size while the rest of his chassis grew, she slipped into the rather spacious cavity.

Shivering a little as his chest plates slid closed behind her, she sent a little probing question into his processor to figure out just what he was planning. On cue, a holoform appeared around Starscream's spark creating a perfect replica of Starscream's much smaller frame. Smiling and beckoning her, the holoform separating its chest plates to reveal the glowing spark.

'_Clever,'_ she teased as she walked over and kissed the holoform's lips.

"Of course," Starscream's holoform laughed before he pulled her close. "Let's forget about the war for a little bit, yes?"

Purring in agreement, she carefully pushed her spark against his. Time almost immediately lost all importance as pleasure beyond her wildest dreams filled her. Starscream moaned loudly as their sparks wound around one another, their minds meeting just as equally as their sparks. It was disorienting and confusing at first, but, like most things, they were quick to adjust. It became a kind of dance, rolling about mentally while their sparks remained in the same place. It was wonderful and perfect, their own little piece of the Matrix away from war.

Overload meant very little to them; it was a momentary pause to figure out which chassis belonged to whom and to let said chassis cool down. As soon as they were down to a manageable temperature, they returned to interfacing, pushing their sparks close together and letting the energy intertwine. Overload after overload crashed over them, but they continued until warnings flashed over their optics.

Groaning softly, they pulled apart and the holoform faded away to leave his spark bare. Yawning, Whitesilence crawled out of her mate's spark chamber and curled up contently against his chest. Smiling sleepily up at him, she snuggled close and smirked at him as his enormous hand covered her like a blanket.

"Recharge well, Whitesilence," Starscream murmured softly before he dropped off.

"You too," she murmured before following suit, the significance of the statement not even dawning on either of them. 


	15. Planet's Core

Chapter 15 Planet's Core

Whitesilence woke before Starscream did and was quick to check the surrounding area for any working processors. Scourge was nearby complaining about something or other that she really did not care about. Blacksprite was wandering around, more interested in exploring the new level than actually looking for the Cyber Planet Key. It was not that big of a deal considering she could always use the excuse that she was looking for a way down.

Stretching her arms over her head, she glanced at her new mate and smirked. He looked so much younger and innocent when he was recharging. It was almost tragic to know that he was no longer innocent; but, then again, no one was ever truly innocent. Petting his chest, she sent a small pulse of affection down their newly forged bond. Getting to her feet, she left the little hole they were in and headed farther into the new sublevel of the Giant Planet.

The lack of Autobots had her a little worried, but she moved on without complaints. If the Autobots were busy playing around on the higher levels she was not going to attract unwanted attention. Regardless of how boring everything was, she could still look around for the elevator down. Hopefully, the center of the planet was not too far away.

Cutting through the underground sky, she kept her optics peeled for any indication of another elevator. Hopefully she wouldn't have to bust through the floor to keep going. While she knew she was strong, she highly doubted that she had the firepower necessary to cut through at least a hundred feet of solid metal and other various building supports. It would just be so much easier to go down in an elevator.

Swinging wide around a large tower, she was a little surprised to see a small area with human-sized buildings. Dropping her speed, she easily turned to investigate further. For some odd reason, the structures struck her as cute and she could not stop the soft chuckle that bounced around in her head. The area was around a hundred acres large, populated most predominately by large playgrounds.

Turning and coming back for another pass, she quickly spotted four small figures working their way around one of the playgrounds. Even from her elevated height, she could tell that the one out in front of the group was a human. So the Autobots sent their humans in their place; didn't they know that they had no problems killing the little fleshbags? Snorting softly, she started to drop down, only to stop when Scourge stepped into view right behind the group.

_'You got this, big guy?'_ she asked.

_'Yes,'_ he replied a little tensely. _'You keep searching for a way down.'_

Giving a small confirming hum, she turned and sped off. While killing humans was fun, she did have a mission to complete. And then she would probably have to explain to Starscream when he woke up as to why she took off. He was going to hit her, most likely, but there wasn't much that could be done at this point in time. They'd figure everything out after they were on their way back to Cybertron.

Circling the city once again, she almost cheered as she found an elevator heading to the lower levels. Transforming, she landed daintily in front of it and carefully ran her fingers over the thin line in the center of the doors. Sighing, she took a few steps back and prepared to kick the doors open. However, before she could bring her leg up for the necessary strike, a large purple fist smashed into the doors from behind her.

Shrieking in surprise, she spun around and stared up at Starscream in terror. He grinned down at her as he moved into a kneeling position.

_'You could have hit me!' _she snapped furiously as she stomped her foot on the ground in a very childlike fashion.

"I knew I wouldn't," he soothed in reply. "Besides, you wouldn't have been able to kick those doors open. They were stuck tight."

Huffing, Whitesilence relented and glanced at the elevator. _'Little small for you,'_ she commented dryly. _'How do you plan on getting underground?'_

"Blasting through the ground," Starscream replied. "Get going before Galvatron figures out that we're here; the fragger's moving quickly towards us."

Not bothering to ask how he knew, she quickly stepped into the elevator. Smirking at Starscream as she pushed the "down" button, she blew him a kiss and told him to behave himself. His response was to grin devilishly and reply that he made no promises. Shaking her head, she leant against the back wall as the elevator headed lower, listening to random thoughts that wandered across her mind as Autobots and Decepticons moved in and out of range.

Ransack and Crumplezone were spending more time getting beaten up by Optimus Prime than anything else, which she felt bad for because they were so much smaller than the Autobot leader. Thunderblast was busy complaining about being out-smarted by a human; which was embarrassing to say the least. Thundercracker was gloating over the fact that he had finally managed to beat Jetfire up and Jetfire was actually impressed with Thundercracker's victory over him. There was something bubbling under that but he was gone before Whitesilence had a chance to dig further.

Leobreaker and Snarl were recovering from a run-in with Scourge earlier while Landmine, Evac, and Quickmix watched on. Wingsabre was with Override and the human still, heading towards her position as quickly as they could. Every other Autobot and Decepticon was either out of her telepathic range or unconscious so she could not tell where they were. Either way, both groups were making progress towards the very core of the planet.

Huffing a little, she rubbed her forehead and waited for the elevator to come to a stop. She really just wanted this to be finished so that they could go back home and be around things that were not built for mechs ten times her size. She wanted to be able to walk around without the constant, nagging fear of getting stepped on by one of the enormous mechs.

As the doors to the elevator opened, she was greeted by a surprising sight. Rather than another city lying abandoned, beyond the doors was a huge forest. Stepping out onto the new subterranean level, she looked around curiously. It was a beautiful sight, oddly welcoming after all the other enormous cities that wound towards the surface, and she was incredibly happy to be here.

Taking to the sky, she flew over the forest to get a better look at what was around her. Casting her gaze around, she tried to spot anything that would tell her if there was another level below her. However, as she spotted a huge lake up ahead, she pulled up short and let out a soft blast of air from her nose.

Sitting innocently in the center of the lake was an enormous airship, almost identical to the destroyed one that Starscream had brought her to Gigantean on. Casting her mind around, she was quick to find Galvatron's and prod it desperately to get him to pay attention.

_'What?'_ he demanded with a bad-tempered snort.

_'I think I've found what we're looking for,'_ she replied. _'How long until you can get to my position?'_

_'Not long,'_ Galvatron replied with a soft growl. _'Secure the area and wait for me there.'_

_'Understood,'_ she nodded just as the ceiling ahead of her exploded and let Starscream drop into view. _'Aw, frag.'_

Sighing to herself, she flew towards Starscream as he started moving towards the ship. Galvatron was already swearing as he knew who was just ahead of him and ordered her to keep Starscream from getting the Cyber Planet Key. Starscream glanced over his shoulder at her and waved while a large grin spread across his face.

Things just had to get more and more complicated.


	16. The Fourth Key

Chapter 16 The Fourth Key

'_You realize you just made my life incredibly difficult, correct?'_ Whitesilence demanded as she flew beside Starscream towards the giant ship.

"Maybe, maybe not," Starscream replied simply. "No one said you had to obey those orders."

Rolling her optics, she darted ahead of her enormous mate and headed for the ship. She could keep him back if she had to. The method to do so was just going to be very childish and juvenile. Most likely, she was going to end up with a very cranky and irritated mate. However, having Starscream cranky was very different than having Galvatron cranky and she would much rather have Starscream mad at her than her father.

"What are you doing?" Starscream demanded as she started zipping back and forth in front of his nose.

Grinning at him, she flipped over and zoomed right in front of him, stopping him in his tracks before he flew into her. Turning, he tried to move to the left, only to find her zipping by in front of him again. Hissing softly, Starscream tried to turn again and Whitesilence was right there.

"Would you stop that?" he snarled.

'_Nope,'_ she purred as she darted to the side to stay in front of his nose. _'Am I annoying you?'_

"Yes!" he snarled furiously. "Stop that and let me pass!"

'_Sorry, I am contractually obligated to keep you from getting in the ship,'_ she replied in her best sing-song voice.

Growling, he reached to grab her, only to grunt as two lasers slammed into his back. He spun with a snarl, almost knocking Whitesilence out of the sky as his wings swung around. Holding her sword, she watched as Wingsabre veered wide to avoid getting swatted by Starscream. Jeering at him, Wingsabre flew past him, only to yelp and dodge Whitesilence's sword.

"Would you make up your mind as to whose side you're on?" he demanded as he transformed and pulled his own swords out. "You're giving me whiplash."

'_I'm here as one of Galvatron's mechs,'_ she replied before they lunged for each other. _'And your pain amuses me.'_

"Great, now you're sadistic too," he teased as they clashed and strained to over-power the other. "Although, considering that you're a Decepticon, I shouldn't be surprised."

'_Do you ever shut up?'_ she asked in reply as they broke apart and circled each other. _'Or is your mouth just wired to flap endlessly?'_

"Ouch," Wingsabre laughed as their swords struck each other again. "That's a good one; I'll have to remember to use it later on Thundercracker!"

Smirking as they pulled away from each other again, she realized a little late that Starscream was now heading for the ship. Cursing, she made to follow him, only to find Wingsabre blocking her path. Grimacing, she readied her blade and tried not to think about the fact that Galvatron was going to be very, very angry with her when he found out that she let Starscream get past her.

Surprisingly, Wingsabre simply looked over her shoulder and charged. Darting out of the way, she watched him fly past her and tilted her head in confusion. She was tempted to follow him and see what had caught his attention, but figured that going after Starscream would get her better results. Besides, she could dig through his processor later if she was really bored.

Flying towards the ship, she watched Starscream punch a hole through the hull and rolled her optics. Why couldn't he ever just look for a door? It couldn't have been that hard to find one on such a massive ship; there must have been dozens to choose from. Oh well, it made following him much easier now. Snorting softly, she flew in through the hole and followed Starscream at a distance. She did not feel like getting plucked out of the air because her mate felt like getting back at her for earlier.

Upon entering a huge room, Whitesilence spotted the Cyber Planet Key up ahead and quickly reached out to contact Galvatron. _'I've located the Cyber Planet Key,' _she reported.

'_I thought I told you to guard the ship,'_ Galvatron growled in reply.

'_Minor problem keeping Starscream back when I'm fighting an Autobot,'_ she shrugged. _'Want me to grab it?'_

'_Just keep Starscream busy until I get there; I won't be long,'_ he ordered before roughly rebuffing her link.

Grumbling mentally, she looked up as Starscream reached the Key and bent down to pick it up. He was purring over the bond, praising himself for finding the Key first and claiming its power. Sensing someone approaching, Whitesilence gave her mate a sharp jab over the bond to get him to pay attention. He turned around just in time to watch Landmine come racing into the room and glare at him.

"Give up the Key, Starscream!" he roared.

"And why should I?" he asked as he waved the purple Key around. "I fail to see anyone else worthy of such a powerful artefact."

'_Bite me.'_

'_Not now.'_

"That's real rich coming from you, Starscream," Landmine growled. "I'm taking you out now!"

'_Want me to referee?'_

"Hardly; just stay out of the way and you might be walking out of here."

'_Tough talk, Autobot.'_

Floating towards the ceiling, Whitesilence let the two mechs duke it out. It was amusing to watch Landmine dance around Starscream and punch ineffectually at his legs as the much larger mech tried to stomp on him. It was like watching a sparkling play fighting with their creator, only with a lot more swearing and real effort being put behind the attacks. Finally, Landmine got the bright idea to slam into Starscream's leg while his foot was in the air and sent him toppling onto the floor with a loud yelp of surprise.

The Cyber Planet Key was sent skidding across the ground and Landmine was quick to pounce on it. The Key glowed a brilliant shade of magenta before Landmine's chassis started to grow. Whitesilence stared on in surprise as Landmine grew to Starscream's size. Snarling, Starscream got to his feet and attacked Landmine viciously.

Whitesilence was more than happy to stay out of the fight now. Just watching them tear into each other with a ferocity that made the denizens of the Beast Planet look tame was making her a little sick. Of course, the small tingles of pain that were being transmitted over the bond were not helping matters and she was tempted to duck out of the room until a victor presented itself. However, there was a small part of her that was very amused that Starscream was getting beaten up by the much older mech.

'_Stop laughing at me!'_ he whined as he was knocked straight up into the ceiling by a powerful uppercut.

'_I'm not laughing,'_ she cooed as she watched him start to fall. _'Old mech is strong.'_

'_Old mech is going to die!'_

Whitesilence watched as Landmine activated his own Cyber Key and sent a dual-tunnel of air at him. The force behind the attack was enough to propel him up into the ceiling again. Not only that, but it somehow managed to knock him straight through the interior of the ship and launch him out into the surrounding water.

'_Okay,'_ she whistled as Landmine turned towards her, _'I'll admit that that was impressive.'_

"Your turn," he growled as he punched his fist into the palm of his other hand.

'_Hardly,'_ she retorted with a snort as she darted out of the way of a very badly thrown punch. _'I'll just take the Key and leave, if you don't mind.'_

Snarling, Landmine turned to attack her, only to be knocked forward as a laser hit him. Galvatron lowered his gun and sneered at the gigantic mech. Whitesilence quickly darted to his side, smirking a little as Redscream stood hissing at his heels, gun aimed directly at the gigantic form of Landmine.

"You've accessed the power of the Key," Galvatron commented dryly. "How amusing."

"Not as amusing as stomping on you is going to be," Landmine growled as he climbed back to his feet. "You can't beat me, Galvatron!"

"We'll see about that," he growled in reply before lunging for the giant mech.

He easily knocked them both out of the room and through the wall, making Whitesilence groan and rub her optics. Redscream snickered beside her before happily scuttling after them, hissing as a few lasers flew by her. Whitesilence barely gave the two Autobots behind her a glance before she hurried out onto the exterior of the ship to fight.

Galvatron had no problem fighting off three Autobots at once, but Wingsabre was a problem. Taking to the air, Whitesilence confronted the Autobot Seeker. Their fight was as routine as ever, trading snide comments while clashing swords against each other with no real idea as to who was going to come out on top. While they fought, Galvatron was making short work of the Autobots that were surrounding him.

However, as Optimus Prime suddenly called for his Autobots to move aside, Whitesilence turned to look at him. Her optic ridges rose in shock at the sight of the Autobot leader wielding a massive axe that dwarfed him better than any mech on Gigantean. He and Galvatron charged each other, snarling viciously, and Whitesilence almost couldn't look. She knew who was going to win.

Sure enough, Optimus Prime smashed the axe into Galvatron and sent him soaring through the air and out of sight. Wincing a little, Whitesilence touched her forehead and tried not to think too hard about the fact that her father had just gone up against a mech with a weapon with a longer reach than he did. Definitely not something to tell the grand-sparklings.

'_Well, that was axe-citing,'_ she commented dryly.

"Okay, that was a bad pun," Wingsabre groaned.

Shrugging, she took off in the direction that Galvatron had been flung. _'Not much to work with at the moment. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to retrieve my father.'_

"Good luck with that," he called after her. "And don't let the door hit you in the aft!"

Using a human signal, Whitesilence calmly flipped him off over her shoulder as she set out in search of Galvatron. He was going to be so angry about this.


	17. Deja Vu

Chapter 17 Déjà vu

It did not take long for Whitesilence to find Galvatron and for that she was grateful. He was not in a good mood, snarling and swiping at her as she tried to help him to his feet. Cursing Optimus Prime and the universe at large, Galvatron looked every bit the part of an enraged cybercat and Whitesilence did her very best to remain quiet about his ordeal.

He was off towards the Autobots before she had a chance to check for injuries and she just watched him fly off. There was no point in her chasing after him as he would not wait for anyone, let alone her, check for any chance that there was some small weakness in his chassis. It was almost maddening, but she had gotten use to it surprisingly fast in the last few months. While annoying, it was his new normal and there was little she could do to change him at this point in time. Best just to roll with it until he calmed down a little.

Taking to the air, she followed at a distance, watching as he swooped down and attacked the Autobots again. She would have sped up to help, but he had grabbed the Omega Lock and the four keys by the time she had even gotten close. However, she did notice that the ceiling and all the upper levels of the planet were opening up to allow direct access to the surface. And, additionally, there was a space bridge open in the sky. No doubt, it was to take the Autobots back to Cybertron without any problems.

Unfortunately for them, the Decepticons had been one step behind them and now had the upper hand. Rolling, she started heading for Galvatron, planning on falling in behind him as the rest of the army blinked into existence on her telepathic radar. They were, for the most part, nervous and unsure of what to do, huddled on the edge of one of the levels and whispering amongst themselves. They would feel better, no doubt, once they saw that Galvatron had the Omega Lock and Cyber Planet Keys at last.

Something huge loomed out of the corner of her optic and she swerved at the last second to avoid getting rammed into by a very angry Starscream. Annoyance bubbled up immediately, mostly because he almost knocked her out of the sky, and she reached out to reprimand him. Changing her mind immediately, she instead warned her father that Starscream was coming up fast on his aft.

To his credit, Starscream did almost slam into Galvatron and send him flying. Galvatron, however, dodged by the barest millimeter and rolled over to face Starscream.

"Crawled out of the pond scum, I see," Galvatron sneered at him.

"Hand over the Omega Lock, Galvatron," Starscream snarled, rising to his full height to tower over the much smaller mech.

"And what makes you think I'd give it to a weakling like you?" Galvatron laughed, subspacing the Omega Lock.

"You don't know the true meaning of power, Galvatron," Starscream spat. "I have risked everything I own to achieve power! I alone deserve to wield what lies within the Omega Lock."

'_Here we go,'_ Whitesilence sighed, knowing that the two mechs were going to throw speeches around about what real power was.

Crossing her arms over her chest, she dropped back a short distance to make sure she was not in the way if either of them started throwing punches around. She did not feel like being knocked around like a punching bag. Hearing her with ease, she got a double dose of annoyance from the two mechs, both telling her to be silent in their own way. She just rolled her optics in annoyance and waited for the fight to start.

On cue, Starscream threw the first punch. He missed, but Galvatron did not have a chance to retaliate before Starscream swung at him again. They swapped words about power again before they both began to glow with their own personal auras. The Autobots were moving now and she sensed Sideways, another mech, and; surprisingly; Blacksprite moving towards her. It seemed that the Autobots not only felt that now was a good time to get moving but that Starscream was going to get backup.

Dropping down to confront Sideways, she lifted an optic ridge at Blacksprite. She was hanging onto the new mech's shoulders, bracing her feet against his hips as her tail-staff sat perfectly across her back. Her yellow optics were purposefully avoiding Whitesilence's and she squirmed almost guiltily as the mech she was hanging from looked at her. Curious, she reached out telepathically to probe the other mech's mind and both of them jumped in surprise.

'_Another?'_ he asked curiously, looking at her directly for the first time since she had flown over.

'_Interesting,'_ she replied, equally surprised and curious. _'I knew that telepathy was a rare gift, but I am still surprised I found another telepath so far from Cybertron.'_

Sideways danced back and forth in front of them, demanding that they pay attention to the Autobots that were currently taunting them. The other mech simply gave Sideways a look and fired a few shots at the Autobots. They fell back to avoid getting hit, glaring as Whitesilence shot at them as well.

'_How is it that you know Blacksprite?'_ Whitesilence asked as she easily dodged a volley of shots fired by Jetfire.

'_I am her creator,'_ he replied simply. _'And her designation is "Ravage"; Blacksprite is an alias adopted for intelligence gathering.'_

Whitesilence felt her chassis go numb as Blacksprite visibly winced. _'She's a spy,'_ she murmured softly. _'This whole time she's been a spy.'_

'_Affirmative,'_ Blacksprite murmured softly. _'To be fair, the "Blacksprite" programming was always the active personality while I was undercover.'_

'_But it was still a ruse,'_ Whitesilence replied bitterly.

Darting to the side just as a laser flew past her head, Whitesilence turned easily and shot Jetfire backwards. She had never remembered feeling this betrayed in her life, but there was hardly any need for her to care. If Blacksprite, or rather Ravage, wanted to stay with Soundwave, there was nothing she could do about it.

Tackling Wingsabre as he charged her, the two of them started spinning away. Exchanging blows, they fought like a couple of cybercats. It was odd for them, but Whitesilence was taking her anger and frustration out on the Autobot. Surprisingly, Wingsabre seemed to be expecting this sort of punishment and did his best to suffer through the blows while trying to return the treatment. A large explosion above them broke them apart and sent them spinning away from each other.

Looking up, Whitesilence swore in surprise. Starscream and Galvatron were glowing, their individual energies crashing against each other in malicious waves. Optics widening, Whitesilence realized that she knew what was going to happen. Galvatron and Starscream were going to smash into each other, detonating the biggest explosion that she had ever seen, and ultimately killing Starscream. She could not allow that to happen.

'_Megatron, Starscream, stop!'_ she cried out desperately.

Just as she started to rise towards them, Ravage landed on her shoulders. They were both startled and Ravage lifted her head to call after Soundwave. Both he and Sideways were rushing towards the duelling mechs. Spark lurching, she tried to reach out to warn them, but Soundwave's mind forced her back.

'_We know what will happen,'_ Soundwave stated coldly. _'We have accepted our fate long ago. Take care of Ravage; I do not think that you will find much difference in her behaviour outside of some maturity.'_

Watching, Whitesilence saw Starscream and Galvatron's auras flare furiously. Immediately, she pulled Ravage off of her back and darted to the ground. She knew what was coming and she did not want either of them to be slammed into the ground. Landing, she looked up just in time to watch Starscream and Galvatron slam into each other.

The blow seemed to slam into her chest, both ends of her bond with the mech sending shockwaves through her. The explosion above her was just as devastating, sending all the Autobots smashing into the grounds with cries of pain. Blinding light enveloped them and Whitesilence crouched down to hide her face in Ravage's back. Ravage was clinging to her chest, deathly silent as she shook uncontrollably. A pain throbbed through Whitesilence's spark, growing steadily for a good minute before it vanished as suddenly as it had begun.

The light faded and Whitesilence lifted her head up. Galvatron was still hanging in the air, the Omega Lock held tightly in his hand. However, Starscream was missing and for a moment Whitesilence thought that Starscream had failed to survive, but instead there was just a void in her spark. It was not the painful one she instinctively associated with the loss of a mate, it was just a void. Before she had a chance to figure out where the void originated from, Ravage let out a long wail.

"Dad!" she cried out, lifting her head desperately towards the sky. "DAD!"

Wincing, Whitesilence pulled the distraught youngling to her and took to the sky. Galvatron was starting to leave and the last thing she wanted to do was to get left behind. She searched for Redscream and was relieved to find her with the others. Catching up with Galvatron, she tried to ignore the anger rolling off of him.

"That," he growled, "is the last time that brat will bother me."

Whitesilence looked at him, meeting his dark red optics and tried not to shudder in fear. She was convinced more than ever that her father was completely wrapped up in his madness. Maybe, when Primus' power moved through him, it would restore him.


	18. Surprise Alliance

Chapter 18 Surprise Alliance

Standing behind Galvatron made Whitesilence incredibly uncomfortable. It was like watching a madman work. No, it was watching a madman work; Galvatron was not sane anymore. Any semblance of sanity had long since evaporated from his mind. Whitesilence dared not wander too deeply into his mind in fear of contracting the madness.

She was not entire sure what he was planning on doing, but he was working endlessly over the Omega Lock. As he worked, a strange kind of real started to form around them, closing them off from the Black Hole while simultaneously putting them at its very core. Just knowing that the thing that was vying to destroy the universe was pulsing around them put everyone on edge.

On top of that, Whitesilence had to deal with a very depressed Ravage. If it was just the two of them, she might have been able to juggle their emotional states enough to not feel like screaming. However, with the added emotions of everyone else around her made trying to comfort her niece that much harder.

Some small relief was that Ravage was coping well for not being able to sense her father anymore. Sure, she was miserable and rarely talked to anyone outside of one syllable answers, but she was still standing tall. That was the only bit of solace that Whitesilence got; her own spark was wailing in misery at the fact that she could not feel her mate anymore.

'_Do you still hate me?'_ Ravage asked quietly as they watched Galvatron fiddle with something new.

'_I never hated you,'_ Whitesilence murmured, reaching out to rub Ravage's ear affectionately. _'I just…it is hard to accept that the niece I adored was just a put together personality.'_

Looking up at her, Ravage's yellow optics dimmed sadly. Her head nuzzled into Whitesilence's stomach and the simple contact made her smile. Ignoring the soft snicker of Thundercracker behind her, she bent down and hugged Ravage to her chest, kissing her helm gently.

'_I love you too,'_ she murmured softly. _'Never think I don't. You'll always be my little Sprite.'_

'_That makes me very happy,'_ Ravage murmured with a small smile. _'Oh, and can I kill Thundercracker? He's been bugging me.'_

Shaking her head, Whitesilence straightened up just as Galvatron started laughing. Looking up, she watched what was left of her father lift the Omega Lock in front of him. A long beam of light erupted out of the end of it and shot out across the galaxy.

"I am more powerful than Primus himself!" Galvatron cackled. "No one can stand in my way!"

"The boss sure sounds like he's going crazy," Thundercracker whispered quietly.

Shooting him a glance, Whitesilence nodded slightly in agreement. His actions worried her greatly and there was little that could be done to make him calm down. If anything, it was as if the Omega Lock was making lose all sense of reality.

A blinding flash from the Omega Lock sent everyone stumbling back a few paces. Crouching defensively over Ravage, Whitesilence lifted a hand to block the light so that she could make out her father. The bright light was pouring out of the Lock as a thin beam shot off into space. Instinctively, she knew that the beam's destination was one of the planets that a Key had resided on.

_'What are you planning?'_ she demanded. _'Galvatron, you are starting to act like an idiot!'_

'_I beg your pardon?'_ he growled angrily as his red optics flashed over his shoulder in her direction. _'I am the most powerful mech in the entire universe! Show some respect, Whitesilence.'_

Growling in her chest, Whitesilence watched as the beam of light began to retract. A warp gate opened in front of them, the edges shimmering brilliantly against the dark backdrop of space. A small dot appeared in the center of the warp gate and slowly grew larger as the beam dragged it closer to them.

Optics widening, Whitesilence recognized the Jungle Planet as it was pulled into space near Cybertron and the black hole. Trembling, Whitesilence straightened up. Galvatron was laughing hysterically as he held the Omega Lock out and pointed it towards the black hole. Following the direction of the beam of light that still encircled it, the planet moved towards the single point of destruction.

Legs moving on their own accord, Whitesilence had no idea what she was doing until her fist had collided painfully with Galvatron's cheek. Her creator snarled in pain and surprise, red optics flickering in disbelief as he realized who his attacker was. Understanding that her patience had finally snapped with her creator's idiocy, Whitesilence slipped into a battle-stance and barred her dentas at Galvatron.

'_You are mad,'_ she hissed furiously. _'Have you no sense of what you are doing?'_

'_You DARE to challenge me?'_ Galvatron roared, his mental voice shaking the interior of Whitesilence's head. _'I who gave you life?'_

'_I will not stand by while you destroy the universe, father,'_ Whitesilence replied calmly, not moving as Redscream and Ravage settled down on either side of her. _'Think!'_

'_I will rid this universe of all the weakness and disgusting life that has sprouted from that weakness,'_ Galvatron snarled as his hand became covered in electricity. _'If you must fall with it, so be it! I will not allow your weak ilk pollute my perfect world!'_

'_Are you even listening to yourself?'_ Whitesilence demand as she shook her head. _'Galvatron, you are not well. If you would just….'_

'_No!'_ Galvatron howled in rage, optics flashing furiously while his madness bled out. _'You will not stop me! I will cleanse this universe!' _"Seize her!"

Whitesilence activated her Cyber Key in a split second and grabbed her sword fast enough to block Thunderblast's attack. It took little effort to toss her off, especially since Redscream tackled the femme around the waist and bit her shoulder hard enough to draw energon. Ravage fired on Thundercracker, keeping him back as Ransack and Crumplezone tried to gang up on Whitesilence.

_'Don't,'_ Whitesilence warned as she kept both mechs in her line of vision at all time.

"We don't have a choice," Ransack murmured as he pointed his gun at her. "Big guy said to…."

'_I'm mute, not deaf,' _Whitesilence snapped. _'You don't have to attack, Ransack.'_

Any rebuttal she had planned was cut short as Galvatron's hand clamped down on her head. White hot pain laced its way through her armor and assaulted her CPU, setting it ablaze. A scream filled her audios, almost startling her by the fact that it was hers. There were few times that an injury had been severe enough to completely bypass her handicap, but Galvatron's attack was tearing her mind apart at the seams.

Optics sputtering as the electricity built up in her head, Whitesilence watched fear spread across everyone's features. Her audios blew, sending energon rushing down her neck, and the moving mouths before her meant little. Galvatron's laughter rang within her processor as he pushed his will onto her, almost making the sound of her frying circuitry a non-existent thing.

The world wavered as darkness started to creep into her field of vision. Death was upon her and she was almost willing to dive head-first to escape the horrifying agony of her execution. Then, the hand on her head was gone.

She dropped to her knees, convulsing as her processor tried furiously to work around melted wiring and circuitry. Her nose was assaulted for the first time by the horrid smell of her own burning armor and energon, making her expel any energon in her tank all over the surface she was kneeling on.

A solid head to her chest sent her rolling. Redscream bunted her again, rolling her into a burning warp gate as Ravage kept a furious Galvatron at bay with a barrage of laserfire. Only when Whitesilence fell through the gate and landed with a heavy thud on the surface of Cybertron did Ravage turn and follow her.

The next few joors were a blur of colours and shapes for her. Audios ruined, she could not make out anything that Ravage or Redscream said. She never moved from the spot she was lying on, processor slowly growing more and more sluggish as each attempt to retrieve data and control her chassis was met with resistance and error messages.

Hands, a little rough but not without some amount of compassion, rolled her off of her side and she could just make out a red visor. It flickered in and out of focus as the visor's owner worked furiously on her processor. Energon, hot and sticky, rolled continuously down her face, no matter how often it was patted away with a soft cloth.

Inhaling shakily, Whitesilence let out a long sigh and offlined her optics.

"Come on," a voice hissed in her audio. "Don't you dare die on me."

Whitesilence's optics twitched. She knew the voice. It meant something to her, but without a face or name, it amounted to little. But she wanted to listen. She had to.

"That's it!" the voice growled. "Come on, you can do it!"

Suddenly, a chorus of voices joined in, all familiar. Strength filled her chassis as something wet slipped into her fuel lines. Her dermas, dry and cracking, parted and she sucked in tankful of air. Vents whirling furiously to process the cool gaseous substance, Whitesilence listened to her chassis work. Only when she was certain that her chassis was in proper working order did she online her optics.

She stared at the mask face hovering a few inches from hers and hit a mental brick wall. She could hear a rapid beeping noise somewhere to her left as she tried to figure out why this mech was asking her to stay online. Confusion filled her before she did something that surprised her straight to the spark.

"Why the frag are you hovering over me, Jetfire?"

The green mech back-peddled as gasps rang out through the crowd that was farther away. Her hands immediately shot up to grasp her throat, ignoring the tingle of pain as something was ripped out of the tips of her fingers. Energon, warm and fresh, beaded from her pricked fingers as she massaged her throat, her processor trying to catch up with what she had just done.

"I can talk," she whispered in disbelief. A laughter that was part hysteria and part joy burst past her dermas as she kicked her legs like a sparkling. "I can talk!"

Jetfire watched her silently before he walked over and gently took her hands, ignoring the fact that she snapped at his fingers while laughing like a lunatic.

"Calm down, Whitesilence," he instructed. "You were a mess when we found you and you're still recovering."

"How long…?" she asked, looking around at the ring of Autobots. "Am I a prisoner?"

"That all depends on you," Jetfire replied. "Ravage claims that you were almost executed for trying to talk sense into Galvatron. Optimus' orders are to keep you under wraps until we get this whole mess under control."

Nodding slowly, Whitesilence pulled a hand away from Jetfire's and felt the back of her head. It was smooth, but her fingers found the faintest traces of weld lines. Red Alert had tended to her; he was the only medic she knew on the Autobot's side that could fix a soldier up almost seamlessly.

"Galvatron almost killed me," she murmured, still giggling happily at the sound of her own voice; strongly feminine but nowhere near as annoying as Thunderblast's. "I…I owe him nothing."

"Harsh," someone commented. "You don't care about him…just like that?"

Inhaling, Whitesilence straightened and looked into Jetfire's visor, searching for his optics as she strained to reach through a fog that was clouding her mind to connect with his. She wanted him to know exactly how she felt as she tried to explain herself.

"He is still my creator," she stated carefully. "But his actions…he is unfit to lead the Decepticons. This war should have ended a long time ago. I have every intention as his general to stop this insanity." Swallowing nervously, she bit her derma. _'Even if it means that I must kill him to do so.'_

Jetfire took a moment to react, but very slowly he drew away. His head nodded in understanding before he told Hotshot to go get Optimus and tell him that Whitesilence was not going to pull an underhanded trick on them. As soon as he was gone, Jetfire carefully turned her attention to a monitor beside her.

Staring at the screen in confusion, Whitesilence let out a low noise. She was not entirely sure how to get her confusion across without a blunt 'explain' that would probably make Jetfire yelp in pain; she had to use force and since she owed the Autobots for saving her life, it would not be a good idea to remind them so quickly of her rank and power. Jetfire looked down at her and she felt a very, very sloppy attempt of pushing an image towards her of a smile and she smirked; it was rather adorable of him to try.

"See that line?" he asked, pointing to the line that was moving up and down at a slow but steady rate. "That's a sparkpulse."

"And?" Whitesilence asked with what she hoped was exasperation.

"You're carrying," Jetfire laughed. "Should I tell my brother congratulations whenever he decides to show his face?"

"I'm…carrying?" Whitesilence gawked.

Turning her attention back to the monitor, she watched the line move up and down slowly. It was a perfect pulse for a spark that would be less than half a foot across. Crossing her arms over her chest protectively, Whitesilence bowed her head as happy tears rolled down her cheeks.

She was carrying hers and Starscream's sparkling.

**Author's Note: ** For anyone that watches me on DeviantArt, you know why I haven't been uploading lately. I feel bad for it, mostly because the ones on have been collecting dust while new stories have been churned out at an alarming rate. I plan on finishing my current story on DA and focus on getting everything done here. Then, I will start uploading new stories on both sites to make my brain focus again. I do apologize to my readers for my negligence.


	19. Change of Colours

Chapter 19 Change of Colours

Standing before Optimus Prime was rather frightening. Of all the things she had expected to do in her life, holding out her hand to shake his was not at the top of the list. What amazed her even more was how willing he was to accept her into the fold. She could not wear their symbol, mostly because she had voiced her opinion that after the war it was easier for her to adopt the neutral standing than to change so drastically to the Autobot. And, in addition to that, if she was neutral she could convince other Cons to follow her lead to adopting similar standings.

"Do you know what Galvatron is planning?" Optimus asked as he let her hand go.

"Besides destroying the universe?" Whitesilence asked, trying not to purr happily at the sound of her own voice. "No, I didn't have time to scan his processor. It was not a stable environment at the time."

Optimus nodded, his optic ridges pushing close together. Jungle Planet's inhabitants had been saved, that was a huge comfort for her and Ravage. Redscream was staying close to her leg, not wanting to be caught by herself in fear of being attacked by her allies, but her relief was transparent to her master. The planet itself was still in harm's way, but they had to deal with the Decepticons under Galvatron's command.

"We have to meet him head on," Optimus stated softly. "There is no other choice."

Thinking of the strongholds on Cybertron, Whitesilence bit her derma. "Sir, I think I can rally some assistance from some Decepticons that are still on Cybertron," she offered tentatively. "They'd listen to me and I think they would happily follow my command if I told them the situation."

Optimus stared at her for a moment, his yellow optics hard and cold. Whitesilence wanted to wilt under the gaze, stunned that the Autobot leader; whom she had never feared; could hold a gaze that rivaled Galvatron's.

"That's a dangerous gamble," he commented. "If they decide that you are nothing more than a traitor they would kill you."

"I did not get the title I have by being a weakling, Optimus," Whitesilence reassured him with a smile. "I'm a fighter like every Decepticon and have some training that many could never dream of. If they decide to attack, I can fend them off."

Optimus looked at Jetfire. The green mech had been hovering by her shoulder since she had left the medical bay and was not happy that she wanted to jump into active duty so quickly. She was certain that if he had his way she would be in the medical bay until after the sparkling was protoformed. Not that she really blamed him, but she could not stand by while everyone else fought. She now had bigger stakes in this war than before.

"Jetfire, I want you to go with her as back-up," Optimus ordered. "I don't trust the Cons to not attack."

Whitesilence did not flinch as Optimus broadcasted his thoughts without realizing he had. While he had accepted her, he was uneasy about her not taking the Autobot sigil. Part of him logically feared her gathering forces for her creator and returning to him to beg for forgiveness.

Looking at Jetfire, she nodded her head towards the door before she saluted Optimus. "I'll return as soon as I have gathered enough forces or have neutralized them," she stated matter-of-factly. "Come on, Jetfire."

Sprinting out of the room, the two of them left the base quickly. Taking to the air, they hurried towards the closest stronghold. Whitesilence sent a questioning ping forward, hoping to drag them into the open so that she had more room to hide if they did decide to become hostile. To her relief and amazement, the mech in charge of the stronghold agreed to have everyone meet her above ground.

It seemed far too easy.

Transforming, she landed on the ground and watched almost twenty blaster take aim at her. Jetfire growled beside her and aimed at the group. Moving her optics over the crowd, Whitesilence signalled Jetfire to stand down. Even though he snarled that she had lost her mind, he lowered his weapon and allowed her to take a step towards the nervous and antsy group of Decepticons.

_'Judging by your reactions, I can tell that Galvatron has sent word that I am to be killed on sight,'_ she stated calmly. _'Before you act, however, I want you to listen to me. You know that I am a loyal Decepticon and a trusted advisor to our lord Galvatron. I would not abandon his cause or him for anything short of death or sheer insanity.'_

The mechs shifted, some narrowing their optics in distrust. She knew a great deal of them would love to get on Galvatron's good side and possibly live a little while longer. That was what she hoped to appeal to; her factions rather unsavory reputation for choosing horrible options to stay alive.

'_Galvatron is insane,'_ she explained. _'He has collected the item that he needs to achieve his goals. He plans on speeding up the destruction of the universe. No one, aside from him, will survive the mass extinction.' _

Terror spread through the crowd and several dropped their guns on the ground. She had their attention and already she could tell that some were willing to do whatever it took to stay alive. That was all she needed.

'_I don't plan on dying, not for something as meaningless as this,'_ she growled. _'Galvatron is leading us all to our death and I will not stand for such stupidity. Which is why I have found you. I have joined Optimus Prime, not as an Autobot, but as a neutral to end Galvatron's madness. He is little more than a crazed dog that needs to be euthanized. He has long since ceased being the military warlord of old; his war must end.'_

"So you want us to become Autobots?" someone demanded furiously.

'_No, I want you to help them,'_ Whitesilence replied gently. _'We can't win this war, not with the tactics that we employ. Our numbers have dropped too low to continue to support this campaign. I understand if you would rather die fighting the Autobots, but I am giving you the chance to immortalize yourself as the mechs that stood up for Cybertron and do what this war started out to do; save our race from destruction.' _

Looking around, she was relieved to see everyone's optics showing their desire to follow her. She was not good at giving speeches, but she knew that her mind could easily persuade them to see her side. Luckily for her, they were all scared for their own armor and were willing to do anything to stay alive. Even joining the Autobots and killing their leader was better than dying for him.

'_Who will follow me?'_ she called out.

"Traitorous witch!" a voice bellowed.

A large, silver mech stepped into sight and Whitesilence stiffened angrily. Jetfire moved expectantly behind her, growling softly as the offending mech pointed at her. His red optics flashed before he spat in her direction.

"You dare to turn us on our great leader?" he demanded. "What makes you think that you even have the skill to lead us to anything resembling a victory, you worthless femme?"

_'Silverdart,'_ Whitesilence droned in annoyance. _'You never have respected my authority. If you chose to stand with Galvatron, then you are an enemy. I can kill enemies, you know.'_

"I've been waiting a long time," he growled.

Whitesilence had just enough time to push Jetfire safely behind her before Silverdart lunged for her. A fist collided painfully with her stomach and she doubled over, letting him think that she was easily bested. His hand settled around the scruff of her neck and tossed her through the air.

Flipping over with ease, she skidded backwards a few feet. Her Cyber Key activated her sword and she swung it around in a wide arc. He dodged with ease, stepping back to avoid the blade. Their optics locked from across their claimed battlefield and Whitesilence bared her fangs.

She lunged, swinging her sword beside her. Silverdart dodged again, ducking under her arm to try to shove a small dagger into her chest. Her free hand grasped his wrist and shoved the tip away, allowing it to just brush her armor. Using his weight to help her, she flipped him over her shoulder.

Moving quickly while he was still airborne, she drove her sword through his back. It burst through his front with a small spray of energon and broken armor. He gasped in pain, optics going wide as they both tumbled forward. The movement allowed her to drag the sword up to his shoulder, splitting his chest in half. With one more wrench, she freed her blade from his shoulder and watched as his torso flopped on the ground.

"No," he rasped out. "Please."

'_Goodbye, Silverdart,'_ she replied simply as she flipped the blade around in her hand. _'See you in the Pit.'_

Without waiting for a reply, she flung the sword at his neck and watched with a satisfied grin as the blade lopped the mech's head off. Turning back to the crowd, she waited for anyone else to voice their opinion.

As she expected, they all saluted and awaited further orders.

'_Follow me,'_ she ordered as she transformed and took to the skies.

Most of the mechs were ground-bound, so they hurried along behind her. Their excitement for having their energon moving again was contagious and Whitesilence eagerly looked forward to the fight. Jetfire did not share their enthusiasm, but he understood their desire to fight for something important.

As they approached the Autobot headquarters, she saw laserfire filling the sky. Autobots, Jungle Planet denizens, Velocitron denizens, and the Decepticons from Earth were fighting side-by-side against Galvatron. She could see massive forms moving in the space above Cybertron, but she was not at all sure as to what she was supposed to be seeing.

"Is that Thundercracker?" Jetfire suddenly demanded.

'_Where?'_ she asked in confusion as she cast her gaze around.

"That big blue mech there," Jetfire replied as he transformed and pointed off to the side.

Transforming, she followed his heading and gawked. A massive mech even bigger than the mechs from Gigantean was waving his arms around in a fit as he fired off multiple laserbolts. It looked like Thundercracker, but it was just too big!

"No way," she murmured before she spotted Optimus circling with Wingsabre.

Hurrying over to him, she saluted and handed command of the Decepticon troops over to him. The troops were less than enthused by the sudden change of command, but when Optimus ordered them to attack the gigantic mechs, they did so with relish.

"What is with the giants?" Jetfire asked.

"Galvatron used the Omega Lock to make his followers super-sized," Wingsabre replied. "Didn't know he could do that."

"So that's actually Thundercracker?" Whitesilence blinked in fright. "Frag."

"Scared?" Wingsabre teased.

"Giant guy with issues; ya, I'm scared," Whitesilence replied before looking at Optimus. "Orders?"

"We're going after Galvatron," Optimus replied. "Think you could help us out?"

"Take down that madmech?" she asked before shouldering her sword. "Count me in."

The plan was simple; all the leaders of the planets were going to rush Galvatron. Whitesilence would cut off Galvatron's retreat and Jetfire was going to be her backup. It was a simple enough plan and they all knew they had very little choice in the matter. With simple nods and wishes of luck, they all hurried to stop Galvatron before he could force the black hole to speed up.

Optimus' plan almost failed the instant everyone rushed Galvatron. He teleported without opening a warp gate and only through sheer luck was Whitesilence able to dart into his path as he tried to flee. Wrapping her arms around his chest, they struggled for dominance, snarling and baring their fangs at each other. At some point, he dropped the Omega Lock and Keys, which Override was quick enough to grab and dart off.

"You traitorous….!" Galvatron started to snarl before Jetfire punched him hard in the jaw.

"Save it, Galvatron!" he spat.

Whitesilence released Galvatron so that he could float away dazed. She glared at him, watching out of the corner of her optic as Override hurried back to Cybertron. Her commlink was full of mechs shouting that the giants had shrunk and that they were making a run for it. Glancing at Optimus, she nodded and turned to cut them off.

"You deserted me for the Autobots, Whitesilence?" Galvatron growled angry.

'_I deserted you because you are insane and I will not fall down with you,'_ she replied simply. _'Just leave while you still have a tail to tuck between your legs.'_

"You dare?"

The resounding crack made her turn around. Galvatron's jaw was dented and Optimus watched with amusement as the Decepticon leader floated away. His optics were out and Whitesilence knew that he was out cold.

"Nice," she smirked.


	20. Goodbye

Chapter 20 Good-bye

Whitesilence was sure that watching Primus close the black hole was amazing, as was the reformatting of Cybertron itself. But she had other things to do. The four that Galvatron had enlarged had gone into hiding, badly, on one of the planets near Cybertron. It was a rather barren world and left little place for anyone to hide. So it did not take her long to find them.

"What do you want?" Thundercracker sniffled as he backed up pathetically into the hole he was hiding in with Thunderblast, Ransack, and Crumplezone.

"Isn't it obvious?" Whitesilence replied, ignoring the open mouths she received. "Come on now; sulking isn't going to repair the damage you've done."

"Since when could you talk?" Ransack demanded as he hopped out of the hole and glared at her. "Thought you were a mute!"

"I was," Whitesilence replied with a shrug. "Red Alert fixed it. Now come along."

"You betrayed Galvatron!" Thundercracker snapped. "Why should we follow you anywhere?"

Whitesilence turned to look at him, lifting an optic ridge in amusement. "Thundercracker, really? Galvatron was not going to bring you into his new world. I don't like that I left him either, but the Autobots have been right since the beginning of the hunt; Megatron's agenda was twisted. Besides, don't you want to be with Jetfire in peace rather than alone in death?" Thundercracker's optics went wide as his mouth opened in a question. Tapping her head, Whitesilence smirked. "Telepath, remember? At least it explains why you went through so many of the femmes on the base; thought you could cure your attraction to mechs?"

"Shut up," Thundercracker pouted before he climbed out. "Jetfire doesn't like me anyways."

"Sure he doesn't," Whitesilence rolled her optics. "That's why he challenged you to fight every chance he got. Mechs are strange; you hit each other to say 'I like you, please like me too'."

He glared at her while Ransack snickered. A single look silenced the smaller mech, but it did not wipe the smirk off his face. At first, Whitesilence thought that he was going to make fun of Thundercracker; he was certainly laughing in his mind. But then, he started doing a strange dance while singing loudly and she found herself laughing in good humor.

"Thundercracker and Jetfire sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"

Surprisingly, Thundercracker smiled and laughed. Crumplezone and Thunderblast crawled out of the hole and waited for orders. Whitesilence explained that there was a rocket that was going to be planted on Jungle Planet to get it back into its original orbit. She sent them on their way with instructions to make sure it did not get sabotaged by some idiot and her commlink went off.

"What's wrong?" she asked as she answered.

"Galvatron, that's what," Jetfire replied. "He just challenged Optimus to a fight and I'd feel better if you were there to witness it. And…."

"And kill him if he does Optimus in," she replied. "I'll get moving."

"No need; they're heading for your position," Jetfire replied.

Looking up at the sound of engines, Whitesilence gave the confirmation before she darted away from the hole. Galvatron and Optimus crashed into the ground where she had been a moment later. They did not seem to notice her, something she was very happy about, and she quickly got to higher ground to avoid getting the brunt of any of their fighting.

They were surprisingly contained for once. From her elevated point, she didn't even get hit with a single wave of energy. But they were fighting hard; pieces of their armor were busting off and energon was staining the ground. It wasn't exactly graphic, but their grunts and pants were a clear indicator that they were in pain and feeling every single injury.

Optimus and Galvatron were shouting at each other, their voices a little too muffled for her to pick up and she really did not feel like reading their minds while they were trying to fight. Even the slightest distraction could cause problems to either fighter; she learnt that a long time ago. She guessed that Optimus was giving one of his speeches about how he was stronger because of everyone else and Galvatron was telling him how stupid he was to rely on others. She tried not to wince at that thought; now was not the time for guilt.

"What's going on?" Wingsabre demanded as he landed lightly beside her.

"Battle to the death, I wager," she replied with a shrug. "Pretty bad. Never seen armor break off like that."

"Optimus and Galvatron are both incredibly strong," Jetfire huffed as he landed on her other side. "For them to start fighting like this…well, it must be the end."

"Ya," Whitesilence murmured. "And Optimus has to win."

She tried not to think of the arrow of misery that pierced her spark at that thought. She never thought that she would ever be hoping that her father lost. He was indestructible, unbeatable, and all-powerful; but now reality was sinking in that her father, while unbelievably strong, was just another mech, not the near-god her sparkling mind depicted him as. And he had to lose.

The fighting intensified, really sending shockwaves across the ground now. Her knees knocked against each other and, embarrassingly, she had to lean on Wingsabre to remain upright. Her optics followed the battle, watching as they sprang apart and stood staring at each other. Then, there were swords in their hands and her spark clenched in fear.

"Oh no," she whispered, hoping no one had heard her.

"That's Vector Prime's sword," Jetfire murmured. "How did Optimus get that?"

"I'm more interested in where Galvatron got his," Wingsabre huffed. "Any ideas, Creamy?"

'_Creamy?'_ she shot a glare at Wingsabre to show that she did not approve of the nickname before she shook her head. "I have no idea. It looks like it's made of the very fabric of space. Clichéd and all, but that's what it looks like."

Jetfire and Wingsabre nodded their heads just as Galvatron and Optimus charged each other. There was a flash of light that hid the combatants for a mere second, just enough time for Whitesilence's optics to register pain. Then, it vanished and they could take in what had happened.

Optimus Prime had run Galvatron through with his sword and now he was breaking off into tiny pieces.

"No," Whitesilence found herself saying without realizing it. "No, no, no."

Neither of the jets bothered to grab her as she stumbled forward. Time seemed to be moving unnaturally slow as she almost fell down the ridge she had been standing on. Optimus glanced over at her as she hurried over to them, tripping over her feet as tears stung her optics. He backed away, letting her fall against the dying silver and black mech.

Galvatron's arms wrapped around her as she tumbled against him. "Even after abandoning me, you return to my side in the end," he growled weakly into her audio. "I should kill you."

'_You…I couldn't…please…,' _Whitesilence whimpered as she cried into his chest. _'Don't go…please…don't go.'_ She held him close, hiding her face in his still warm chassis. _'You already left me once…please.'_

"Primus calls," Galvatron murmured into her audio. "Not even I can deny him."

'_Daddy,'_ Whitesilence whimpered as she felt him coming apart beneath her fingers. "I love you…no matter what."

Silence followed her words and for a moment she thought that he was really gone. Then, there were warm dermas against her helm and her tears stopped falling as she looked up. Galvatron was encircled by a strange glow as his horns and head started to drift away. His optics were soft and familiar and the smile that he had was kind and loving; he was his old self at the very end.

"I bet you tell all the mechs who save you that," he whispered as his arms tightened minutely around her. "Good-bye, my little one. Be good for Optimus but don't be afraid to give him Pit."

She could not speak, her throat filled with a strange knot, but she nodded. Then, as he offlined his optics and vented a soft sigh, Galvatron drifted away all at once. Whitesilence fell back onto her knees and hid her face. She felt a hand on her shoulder and she turned into the offered chest to cry.

Galvatron was dead. The Universe was safe. And she was very much alone.


	21. Epilogue

Epilogue

Whitesilence leant against the wall of the Embassy on Cybertron and sipped her energon quietly. Life was amazing on Cybertron. There were sparklings running around underfoot, energon was flowing, frag, there was even a sun! The Decepticons were integrating well into society, some even taking Autobot mates when there was a chance. Sure, there were a few that could not be reasoned with and some Autobots that were just as bad, but that was to be expected.

Laughter far below her made her peek curiously over the railing of the stairs. Far below her, a group of sparklings were chasing a bright orange Scrapmetal around. She smiled, happy that she had been able to convince Optimus to let her start a breeding program so that the little nuisances could be turned into affectionate pets. Redscream let out a soft noise beside her, lifting her now white head up from her folded legs.

"Easy," Whitesilence soothed as she leant back against the wall. "Not one of yours."

Redscream let out a small growl before she rested her head back down. Whitesilence smiled before she heard footsteps coming up the stairs. Voices drifted to her and she smirked as she pushed herself off of the wall and went to greet the lovebirds.

"Aw, no sparklings yet?" she teased as she hugged Jetfire tightly.

"Don't even start, you," he warned.

"Aw, but I've been itchin' for a fight!" Thundercracker whined as he leant on Jetfire's hip. "Can't we just tussle a little?"

"You want to deal with Optimus?" Jetfire huffed as he leant down to nuzzle his mate's neck. "Didn't think so."

Whitesilence laughed as Redscream walked over to nip at Thundercracker's hand, demanding treats because she was old, slaggit, and she wanted treats. Thundercracker waved her away, glaring a little at her before he glanced at Whitesilence.

"Heard from Ravage?" he asked.

"Only in reports," Whitesilence shrugged. "Jungle Planet suits her and she's happy; I'm not going to drag her back just because I'm a lonely old glitch."

"How can you be lonely?" another voice demanded. "You have me AND Skywarp to keep you company."

Whitesilence smirked as she turned to accept the wiggling sparkling from Wingsabre. She nuzzled the little black Seeker, trilling softly as he laughed and hugged her.

"Momma! Sabre won't let me get a rust stick," he pouted adorably, narrowing his purple optics just like his father did.

"Can't say I blame him; you go crazy when you eat them," Whitesilence teased as she bounced the little one in her arms. "You can have a gel treat when we get home, okay?"

Skywarp's wings twitched happily as he nodded. He liked gel treats just as much as he loved rust sticks.

"Don't you have to work?" Wingsabre teased.

"I'm sure Optimus will understand that I have to take my son home," she replied as she settled him onto her hip. "You tagging along?"

"Of course," Wingsabre chirped. "See you later, Jetfire."

With a nod, they headed down the stairs. Wingsabre's hand settled loosely on her hip and Whitesilence took a small step towards him. The war was over and maybe she was not as alone as she had originally thought.


End file.
